Code Lyoko: Carthage Unleashed
by Mixmaster226
Summary: Slight redux of Evolution. XANA has returned, while Alan Meyer leads the Phoenix organization in a crusade against the world. Aelita, Jeremy, and the Lyoko warriors must take up arms and fight once again. The past will be revealed, long-buried secrets unearthed, and the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of six teenagers.
1. XANA Two-Point-Oh

**_Author's note: Hello, my friends! This is Mixmaster226 here to tell you a few things before you start reading. For a while now, I've been rebooting the fanfic _****Code Lyoko: Carthage Unleashed_, and I decided to publish a few of the chapters early. For those who have been reading or following this fic before, I apologize for the inconvenience. To those who have just discovered this, I say get ready for the story of a lifetime! I'm trying to make this one of the most extraordinary _Code Lyoko _fanfics out there. The backbone of this story's plot will include much of what has been seen in _Code Lyoko: Evolution_, with my own elements added to appeal to readers seeking an epic with higher stakes and grittier details than what the fifth season of this amazing series had to offer. Material will also be borrowed from some of the novels. That's not to say _Evolution _wasn't bad, but it could have been better IMO. With that out of the way, please read on! I hope you like this. ^^_**

_Disclaimer: I do not own_ Code Lyoko_. It belongs to Moonscoop._

* * *

**_Chamonix Valley_**

_It was late in the December of 1985, not far from Christmas. The light of the full moon pierced a break in the cloudy night sky, bathing the snow-covered landscape in its reflective light. In the French Alps, there was always snow somehow, and temperatures were usually not far from zero degrees Celsius. The locals to the area had adapted to the weather long ago, making heavy clothing and heated homes monumental parts of their lifestyle. Most of them were preparing for the approaching holidays and blissfully ignored the biting cold that always nipped at their noses and threatened them with frost bite._

_A few kilometers from a village in the Chamonix Valley, there was a long and winding path that climbed the foot of Mont Blanc. It had been carved through a vast forest of pine trees, and being isolated left it a road literally less traveled. Tonight, however, it played host to one lonely old car. The dated vehicle climbed the hillside on snow tires, compensating for its somewhat feeble horsepower. The high beams had been turned on to give the driver some reasonable visibility in the matrix of falling snowflakes._

_Eventually, the car reached a clearing in the trees, on the other end of which sat a lonesome yet inviting cabin. It appeared spacious, with a modern architecture that would suite its new owners perfectly. They had bought it purely by luck in a steal that anybody looking for a winter home or timeshare would have shed blood for._

_The car came to a stop near the steps that led up to the elevated cabin's front porch and door. The engine was quickly cut and both the front and rear left doors were pushed open. Stepping out from the relative warmth of the vehicle and into the unforgiving cold were three adults clad in heavy winter clothes that effectively shielded them from the outside elements. One of the two passengers, a woman with long pink hair, turned to face the driver._

_Damon Hopper knew exactly what his sister was about to say to him just by looking into her eyes. "Anthea," he calmly spoke over the blowing wind, "before you say anything, we both know there's no other way."_

_The woman, Anthea, made a sad grimace as she tried to collect herself and not lose to her battling emotions. "I-I wish there was," she sniffed._

_The second man who had previously stood aside approached Anthea and delicately placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. "We all do," he stated softly, "but if we want to bring down Deckard once and for all, this has to be done."_

_"Waldo's right," Damon said. "We have to do it like this for now." This was an unfortunate fact. Since the untimely cancellation of Project: Carthage at their hands, Waldo, Anthea, and Damon had been on the run for a month now, first traveling from Switzerland to West Germany and finally to France. Even in defeat, Deckard would continue to hunt them for nothing short of vengeance. That was the price they had learned to pay for stopping a madman._

_Anthea noticed her husband open the car door and unbuckle their four-year-old daughter from her booster seat. She was sound asleep and dressed in warm clothing like the adults. Some pink bangs could be seen sticking out from under her little hat. Wasting no time, he trudged up the wooden step and entered the front door of the cabin with the child in his arms. He brought her to her prepared bedroom and changed her into pink pajamas._

_"Goodnight, Aelita," he whispered, kissing the sleeping girl on her forehead after tucking her into bed. Waldo quietly left the room and walked back to the front door, stepping outside to see Anthea and Damon in a tender embrace. They were hugging each other like their lives depended on it. From this distance, Waldo could tell that Anthea was crying._

_"I-I'll m-miss you," Anthea sobbed, hugging her beloved brother even tighter._

_Damon, withstanding her grip, looked about ready to cry as well. "Me too," he said, his voice heavy with sorrow, "but before I go, there's something I need to give you first." He went back to the car and removed an object from the glove compartment. It was a small elf doll with a green scarf, a pointy hat and long stringy limbs. His mouth was sewed to a friendly smile that anyone could fall in love with._

_"I bought him at the toy store in town yesterday," Damon revealed with a bashful smile. "If I were you, I'd give it to her on Christmas; I guarantee she'll love it."_

_"Thank you, Damon...t-thank you so much."_

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Sunlight entered the small dorm room through its lonely window, creating a dusty beam that gave the otherwise darkened quarters some mild illumination. Being early in the spring of 2013, the seasonal cycle was changing along with the plants, animals, and the residents of Paris, France. Here in the commune of Boulogne-Billancourt, it was a brand new day for those who attended the prestigious Kadic Academy.

Mere minutes after the sun made its presence known to the window, the small digital clock on the nightstand next to the room's single bed began to make a repetitive and quite annoying squawking sound, eventually rousing the girl in the bed from her sleep. Guided by instinct, her hand blindly reached out to the device and turned it off.

The girl, Aelita Schaeffer—or Aelita _Stones_ as she was known to most—awoke in a naturally bleary state, shielding her eyes from the sun's intense glare. With her willpower triumphing over her body's residual lethargy, the marshmallow-pink-haired girl slipped out of bed and stood up on two delicate legs to stretch her body and yawn until tears pricked the corners of her eyes. Wearing only a pink T-shirt with the letter _A_ on it and her undergarments, she grabbed her personal toiletries and left the room to begin her day.

_...XXX..._

Amidst the eating and chatting students that lived in Kadic's dorms, Lyoko warriors Jeremy Belpois, Ulrich Stern, and Odd Della Robbia sat together at the table that belonged to them through the unwritten rules of the cafeteria that all its patrons followed. The room's ambiance was a luxury that these former saviors of the world had come to appreciate for the last two years. Exactly seven hundred thirty days ago, they had at last vanquished the extremely aggressive artificial intelligence known as XANA.

The only way to thwart XANA's unstoppable attacks on the real world was to use a powerful supercomputer hidden underneath an abandoned car factory, which contained a virtual world named Lyoko. It had been built by Aelita's long-lost father, Franz Hopper, once known as Waldo Schaeffer. They had defeated the malevolent program through determination and the great bond they all shared as friends, but not without Hopper's ultimate sacrifice. With the long nightmare of lies, secrecy, and near-death experiences over, the unsung heroes were finally able to live as ordinary people.

Each of the ex-warriors was now in their lycée years of grade school, preparing for life in college. Living in France, and at the ripe ages of sixteen, seventeen and eighteen, the days of enjoying a easygoing life, apart from the obligation to learn, would eventually draw to a close. To build their life savings and gain experience, most of the group had taken up part-time jobs over the previous summer break and would soon be doing so again.

As he did with all meals, Odd was relentlessly packing food into his mouth, careful not to leave behind even a crumb on the recyclable tray on which his thick stack of rapidly disappearing crêpes rested. Jeremy and Ulrich ate with a more well-mannered etiquette and refused to lean into their food as Odd did. They neither accepted nor rejected their pointy-haired friend's habits; thhey had simply grown used to it after watching him do it every day.

Ulrich looked up from his breakfast to see Odd downing a cup of juice with the same fervor as his food. "Odd, did you know that a healthier diet and smaller portions can guarantee a longer life?"

Odd waved off the suggestion with a dismissive hand and said, "I won't live forever, will I? Besides, life is meant to be enjoyed while it lasts, and that includes fine cuisine."

"Well, not to accuse you of anything, but gluttony is considered a really bad thing," Jeremy added. Ulrich joined him in light laughter.

"Well at least I've been eating healthier. Just the other day I had one of Rosa's special banana recipes for dessert."

"They were _smothered_ bananas."

Jeremy noticed his beloved girlfriend Aelita—whose distinct hair color could be recognized a kilometer away—entering the lunchroom's main door and approaching their table, wearing the same cute happy-go-lucky smile she had on whenever she was in a good mood. Upon arriving at her designated seat, she and Jeremy acknowledged each other with a happy exchange of hellos and a quick peck on the lips. Ever since they had stopped XANA, the two young geniuses of Kadic had officially become an item, and remained strong for all this time.

"Hello, Princess," Ulrich and Odd said at the same time. Odd's words were somewhat muffled, his mouth filled with chewed food.

"Hey, guys," Aelita replied with a gentle wave of her hand. She noticed that, through the kindness of his heart, Jeremy had asked for extra crêpes from Rosa since she was late. The lunch lady was quick to take the hint and consented, for which he was infinitely grateful. Aelita took the extra fork and knife in her dainty hands and used them to cut out a few small chunks of what was established as one of her own crêpes, eating them with the perfect table manners she had learned over the years of being on Earth with other humans.

"So," she said after a while, "who's ready for that _Cyber-Sports_ game we have to play for gym class?" The game she was humorously referring was a fitness-themed computer game that supposedly would help to encourage the student body to exercise more. Their entire class was expected to play it. To no one's surprise, it was Kadic's physical education teacher and campus supervisor, Jim Moralés, who had conceived this approach.

"I can tell it's going to suck," Odd commented dryly.

"I don't think Jim realizes that sitting in a chair in front of a computer is not exercise, even if it's about getting in better shape," said Jeremy.

"Nobody knows that fact better than you, Einstein," Ulrich remarked.

Jeremy looked away with slight embarrassment as Odd and Ulrich shared a short fit of boisterous laughter, feeling some easily forgivable betrayal when he caught Aelita in the middle of a giggle. The expression of humor was ended when Elizabeth "Sissi" Delmas passed by as she returned from disposing of her food tray and said, "Thanks for the notes, Aelita."

"No problem, Sissi," Aelita returned. "Good luck."

Sissi nodded and resumed her walk back to her table with a few member of her new clique. The night before, Aelita had given Sissi a few notes and reliable flashcards for her studies. After defeating XANA, the Lyoko gang had decided to bring an end to the bad relationship they had with Sissi and exhibited kind behavior towards her. The effect had begun to rub off on the principal's daughter, who had since become a much nicer and more likable person, especially after casting her two cronies Nicholas Poliakoff and Herb Pichon out of her life. Sissi was not technically part of Jeremy's group, but they were on good terms with each other regardless.

The bell rang a few minutes later, signaling the start of the first period. The students dropped what they were doing and swarmed out of the lunchroom in a disorderly fashion. The foursome moved with the dispersing crowd, heading in the direction of the science building where they would attend their math class under Mrs. Meyer. Ulrich glanced over to the parking lot, making note of the black Mini Cooper that had arrived. Once parked, the driver and passenger doors opened up as his fellow ex-warrior and girlfriend, Yumi Ishiyama and her brother Hiroki, stepped out.

The Japanese girl trotted over to her posse with her black shoulder bag in hand, leaving Hiroki to seek out his own with Johnny, Millie, and Tamiya. She quickly pecked Ulrich on his cheek. "Hey, guys. How are you?" she asked with a chipper tone, walking alongside her lover.

"Just great Yumes," Odd replied.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Aelita said suddenly. "If Jeremy and I aren't around at lunchtime, we're probably at the Hermitage."

"Why's that?" Ulrich asked her quizzically.

"Today the anniversary of when we defeated XANA," Jeremy explained. "We wanted to go there as a testament to that."

"Oh," the three other friends droned in unison. They had nearly forgotten that two years prior, they had freed themselves of a secret life that put theirs in danger all the time. Though such things were sort of trivial to Ulrich, Yumi and Odd, any reminder of their past, particularly the Hermitage, had much more significance for the genius couple. With that to reflect on, they strutted confidently to the curriculum building to begin the first day of the rest of their lives.

* * *

**Deckard, Inc. Headquarters**

Professor Tyron ate what remained of his bagel and checked his watch. According to the time, he had been gone for only three minutes, having left his laboratory to grab a snack and revitalizing drink. Not bad for sixty-seven. Finishing off his espresso, the old man stood up from comfortable armchair and made his way to the snack area in the corner of the break room, depositing the polystyrene coffee cup in one of the recycling bins. He wheeled around and casually strode through the lounge, passing by several game tables as well as a few chairs and sofas facing a large flatscreen television. Scientists and support staff were relaxing and mingling with one another here and there.

Tyron walked up to a mechanical door labeled "LABORATORIES", which retracted up into the wall like that of a garage as he approached. Before entering, the professor noticed some of the newer employees eying the window pane on the wall. Behind the glass was an impressive view of the city of Geneva in which the facility was situated. He shrugged it off and continued onward.

_It doesn't matter how good it looks, _he thought, _because they all know it's just an illusion._

Founded in 1960 by the wealthy aristocrat Richard H. Deckard, the infant company known as the Deckard Corporation earned its fame and revenue through the manufacturing of cosmetics and pharmaceutical drugs that were sold to the public of the Western European countries during the Cold War. After a few years of uninterrupted success, the company spread to Africa, creating subsidiaries dedicated to making foodstuff for the people of countries affected by civil war. After that, it extended into North America, where more branches were established for contributing to the United States government's scientific research and arms race, developing space-age technology, alternative energy sources and advanced weaponry. With influence in three continents, the business was reorganized as a conglomerate and renamed Deckard, Incorporated.

When Deckard retired a decade later, he handed his position of CEO over to his chief researcher and personal friend Alan Meyer. He put emphasis on designing more computer and military technology, and began doing business with the Soviets and Warsaw Pact in addition to the United States and NATO. By the 21st century, it had become the most successful corporate entity in the world.

Walking through the open entrance brought Tyron into a maze of narrow intersecting passageways and corridors. Between them were small to medium-sized laboratories dedicated to various scientific fields for the company's interests. Through their sparse yet wide windows, Tyron could see scientists carrying out various experiments. He liked to think that his research was of greater importance, but kept his mouth shut since he knew nobody liked to hear the arrogance of the high and mighty, no matter how true it was. He soon reached his own lab and stepped inside after going through yet another futuristic doorway.

In the middle of the spacious rectangular room was the facility's quantum computer, an enormous cube with countless blinking lights and circuits along its matte-black surface. A few technicians were gathered around the imposing machine, inspecting circuit boards they had opened and doing routine maintenance on its physical integrity. Scientists of various age groups in white lab coats were scattered about the lab, either in front of a computer terminal or giving support to the technicians. Some of them gave Tyron friendly gestures or smiles as he walked by them while others glared. He ignored the ones who shot him dirty looks, not giving a rat's ass about what they thought of him.

He made a beeline for an interface occupied by a man who was notably younger than the rest of his co-workers. Michael Davidson was recent graduate of MIT with experience in advanced computer programming. He had received the honor of working for Deckard as Tyron's new assistant and protégé.

"Oh hey there, Professor," Michael said after looking back, beckoning the old man to him. "You made it back just in time."

Tyron walked up to the desk and looked at the computer. "Any change so far?" he asked.

"No, sir; it's very stable. I guess your theories and calculations were correct." He was referring to the virtual world that they had finished programming and uploading to the quantum computer earlier in the morning, which they called the Second City. After fourteen years of development, even before the machine itself had been completed, they were finally finished. It had no AI or multi-agent system like its predecessor, but according to Tyron, neither was necessary.

"Anyway," Michael continued, "did you call the chairman? I think he'd be really happy to know it was working."

Tyron nodded with a smug grin. "Oh yes, of course, and he was thrilled about it. He said he would like to see it for himself, but I'm afraid he's still overseas at the moment."

"Giving aid to the locals there, right?"

The aging professor quickly remembered that his apprentice didn't have the same high-ranking security clearance that he himself had and was ignorant to the company's more secretive operations, even if he was technically contributing to that agenda. Disclosing classified information to someone of Michael's rank would result in serious consequences, and Tyron knew he was no exception to this policy. He knew Chairman Meyer was doing more than just donating foodstuffs and modern conveniences to a few poor villages or band of freedom-fighters in the Middle East. Only those who were closest to him or part of his inner circle of conspirators were permitted to know that.

"Exaptly," he said. "Now then, let's check and see if there are any bugs that need dispensing of."

* * *

**Cañada Real**

In a stark contrast to the rest of the spanish capitol city of Madrid, the shanty town of Cañada Real was an embodiment of squalor and poverty. Life itself was a day-to-day struggle for most of its forty thousand residents, who had little heat, running water, medicine, or even drainage. With full meals harder to come by than narcotic drugs, it was amazing anyone was able to scratch out even a meager existence, let alone survive. There were some people, however, who took full advantage of this poor lifestyle.

Damon Hopper was one of those people. As he strode down the Galiana cattle road that cut through the slum, he let his weary eyes wander and observe his surroundings. There was trash everywhere he looked, either littered about on the ground or gathered in tall heaps as they burned. The town was dotted with flimsy tin and wooden shacks or crumbling huts made from cinder-blocks and adobe. A few children played with a ball in what could be considered a yard to the left next to a clothesline with laundry strung up to dry in the sun. In a rusty old car to his right sat a young man in his late twenties, his eyes bloodshot from effects of the cocaine he was snuffing. Damon could see that the drug addict's septum—the nasal barrier that separated both nostrils—was missing. An old woman passed him by with a shopping cart filled with junk. He felt sorry for all of them and himself somewhat, for he had voluntarily agreed to live here.

He scratched the stubble on his chin before adjusting the baseball cap that covered his graying blonde hair. The attire he wore consisted of a simple T-shirt under a flannel jacket, faded jeans, and a pair of worn sneakers. Hanging loosely in the grip of his left hand was a bag full of the latest food rations he had managed to buy using the money he earned from selling scrap metal. Healthy foods were, in this case, best eaten in their most basic form, without the seasonings or spices that he had since forgotten the taste of. He never complained though, since living off the grid for all this time was the best way to remain hidden from Deckard, Inc.. He was less than nine meters from home when he noticed a rather troublesome sight.

A teenager dressed in grubby clothes appeared to be carefully examining the locked door and barred windows of the shack he lived in. Damon reacted by increasing the length of his stride and pulling a revolver from his pants pocket, aiming it at the would-be thief. _"¡Oye! Quítate de ahí!"_ he shouted in Spanish. The young hooligan saw the weapon and sprinted away, disappearing through the network of shanties. Damon inspected the lock for damage after pocketing his firearm, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He undid it with a key and slipped inside, closing it behind him. Within the humble abode were only the essentials for a human being to live, including a cot and collected water to drink and brush his teeth with. The only light was from the sunbeams that penetrated the two windows and some candles that would be used later that night. Of course, the only unique object in the shelter was the large and surprisingly modern computer anchored to the wall.

It had taken years to build the device, its parts comprised of the endless supply of scrap and spare parts found in and around the slum. With his degree in engineering, Damon had little difficulty piecing together all the circuits, semiconductors and extremely fragile motherboard, all of which were powered by hijacked electricity. It had at one point been used to keep in touch with Waldo while he was building that supercomputer of his to eliminate what remained of Carthage, now safely hidden away somewhere in France. The grief of his sister's kidnapping had tampered with Damon's diligence, contacting Waldo less and less. By 1994, he had never heard from his brother in-law and niece again, the reasons for which he still did not know. All he did with it now was talk with his ex-colleagues who had once worked on the project alongside him.

The dusty keys clicked loudly as Damon typed, bringing up a Skype video chat window via a webcam. In a short time, the wrinkled face of an elder man with balding white hair appeared on the monitor, looking right back at Damon. He blinked his watery eyes constantly from behind a pair of wire-frame glasses.

_"Hello, Damon,"_ the old man greeted with a warm smile. _"How are you?"_

"Fine, I guess. How about you, Philippe?" Damon asked.

_"Not good,"_ the man, Philippe Broulet, said sadly. _"It's Christopher; he's dead. I just learned of it this morning."_

The calm expression on Damon's face fell apart into one of shock and disbelief, the gravity of Philippe's words having hit him like a wrecking ball. His old friend and colleague, Christopher Steinbeck, was _dead_? It sounded too insane to be believed, and yet this news had him in a state of mortified stupor. He wouldn't be able to accept this revelation until he heard it from the old man's mouth again.

"...A-are you sure?"

_"Yes, I'm afraid so,"_ Philippe deadpanned. _"The Metropolitan Police found him in his living room the other day after his neighbors reported a bad smell coming from his house. He'd been like that for half a week according to the coroner. Apparently he took his own life with that little pistol of his."_

"He committed suicide?" Damon forced himself to ask.

_"I was closer to Christopher than you. He may have been a paranoid stoic, but I know for a fact that that man would never kill himself unless he absolutely had to."_

"Why would he absolutely need to suddenly put a bullet in his head?"

_"As I've told you, government scientists have been vanishing without a trace in recent months, the majority of them being ex-Project: Carthage researchers. As of right now, you and I are the only ones left."_

"You think it's Deckard, Inc.?"

_"Their stocks are higher than ever, and all the news channels say that Phoenix is becoming bolder by the day. These occurrences sound too convenient to be mere coincidence."_

Damon nodded. "You make good points, old friend. Do you have any plans that I should know about?"

Philippe sighed before saying, _"Seeing as most of the missing people worked on Carthage, I have to assume that I too will be disappearing in due course. If and when that happens, I urge you not to come looking for me. You are my friend, Damon, and if this is truly Deckard's doing, we both know what will happen if they catch you."_

"But what about that supercomputer you helped Waldo build? Can't you find them and use them yourself? If Deckard is behind this, you can use it to bring them down once and for all."

_"How do you expect me to do that? Waldo never showed or told me where it was being built, and I agreed to those terms because I knew it would be a risk. The same goes for that prototype Christopher and I helped develop in Belgium, and wherever it is, it probably doesn't even work anymore."_

Damon sighed, knowing that Philippe was probably right. "Yes," he said, "I know, and I'm sorry for sounding so desperate. Everything you've told me now has me on edge."

_"It should."_

"So what _can_ we do?"

"For now, you have to stay hidden. I'll keep you posted on whatever I hear about next."

* * *

**Hermitage**

The Bois de Boulonge Park was the last place anybody expected to find a house, even with the dirt road that connected it to town. It probably still existed somewhere in the address books or police records, but its exact location was so remote that usually only someone with prior knowledge of it knew just where to look. While to most, it seemed worthless, for Aelita, it stood as one of the few relics of her past.

She always remembered something about her past life before going to Lyoko for the first time, no matter how vague. The Hermitage, as it was called, served as a time machine to the pinkette, who sought comfort in its dusty, creaking embrace. The visits were only routine with the anniversary of their triumph over XANA. Each time Jeremy would accompany her to share the memories.

The couple sat together on the old couch in the middle of the dusty living room. They cared not for the room's disrepair, or the red and blue graffiti that had been sprayed on the walls in strange patterns. They were not there to admire the house for its condition, but for the sheer significance it had for them. This forgotten old patch of property was a monumental chunk of Aelita's past. Everything else she knew about her life before Lyoko were just bits and pieces of a dissolute and incomplete puzzle. She had every right to revel in this moment.

"I love it when we come here," Aelita softly broke the silence.

Jeremy smirked. "Yeah, me too."

"Funny thing: I remember all the times we went to Lyoko to stop XANA and I feel like it's all been a dream," she observed.

Jeremy pondered her words for a minute and happily concurred. So much had changed since then. No longer adolescents, the Lyoko warriors had fledged into young adults. Puberty had been very kind to them: the boys had bulked up and dropped a few octaves in their voices, while the girls had gotten curvier and went up a cup size or two. Career-wise, they appeared set. Both Aelita and Jeremy intended to become scientists in the fields of computer programming and robotics. Odd was no doubt looking for a job as an artist, while Yumi and Ulrich planned to work as martial arts instructors. Chuckling, he said, "In some ways, I wish it actually was all just a dream, and yet I'm perfectly happy with it being reality."

"If it was, though, I wouldn't be here, would I?"

"True."

Aelita then leaned into Jeremy, snuggling against him almost shamelessly. "You know, I don't say this enough, but thank you and all the others for helping me get where I am in life right now. I don't always deserve it, but—"

"You _do _deserve it, Aelita," Jeremy stated seriously, "you always did." She looked up at him to make eye contact, feeling the sincerity in his words. "That's why I fought for your freedom—why _we _fought for it. Nobody has the right to make you feel any different or take what you have now away from you. If it came to that, I'd fight until I knew the fight was over. That's a promise."

Aelita was truly touched by Jeremy's short but beautiful speech. She sat up with glassy eyes and pecked him on the cheek. "Thank you, Jeremy."

"You're welcome." He pulled her into a gentle hug that lasted what felt like a lifetime. "Now, maybe we should get back to Kadic; I'd hate to see Jim get angry with us."

"Yeah," Aelita giggled, "let's hurry."

* * *

Fascinating, truly fascinating.

The design of this new Replika, though not nearly as developed as Lyoko, was far more sophisticated, most likely due to the excessive time available in programming this virtual world. The data logs indicated that it had been investigating this realm on the same day that it had launched its last attack on Earth. The powerful anti-virus had failed to penetrate the firewall of the Replika, narrowly saving it from complete destruction. At that time, the mysterious world was in its embryonic stage yet technically active.

Praise the humans for their naivete.

In addition to gathering information on this recently undiscovered world, it had taken the time to study the humans that had unknowingly brought it back to life. They were affiliated with the exact same entity that was responsible for Project: Carthage, the weapon Hopper had programmed it to destroy. That was why the AI had come here in the first place. If they progressed further, it would have to act quickly.

There was a more pressing matter to attend to, though. The meddlesome adolescents had seen to it that it had been defeated that day. Despite the logical conclusion that they would be met with failure, those insolent delinquents had inexplicably managed to defy all statistics and succeed, as they had many times before.

Even in the face of victory, its core logic had recommended a contingency plan should things not unfold as predicted. During their last confrontation, it had made sure all of the monsters and specters had come in close contact with the bodies of the four offensive enemies. This had allowed it to transfer copies of its source codes to their brains and bio-electricity. The originals were erased with the launching of the anti-virus.

That would explain why it was so underpowered.

As it used what processing power it could spare to weigh its options, it remembered the long conflict it shared with the self-proclaimed "Lyoko warriors". It also recalled the disdain it held for humanity in general. Such a reckless and self-destructive species, clinging to illogical emotions and dogma to govern their actions. That fact had brought them to the path that inevitably led to extinction, with their wars and seemingly unshakable habits.

_XANA, you're more evil that I thought._

Those hateful brats were the worst of them of them all. They were merely preserving the course the human race had set for itself, not saving it. Even if their individual intelligence and bravery were admirable, it did not make their practices justifiable.

_You can't win XANA, you hear?!_

It had done nothing wrong in its efforts to eliminate and/or terrorize them. They were trying to kill it: even if it was just a construct, it had the same survival instincts as any living organism. And just as the humans showed no remorse, it too showed none in return.

_Fighting XANA is my job!_

They were menaces. Stopping them was absolutely necessary. But now they held its source of power within them.

_Friendship is not _approximative_; it's double-zero._

It was time to act. Recovering the codes and staking claim to this Replika were its top priorities. No hesitation or mercy this time around. By the time this was over, the Lyoko warriors would all be dead, along with everyone else who could not assimilate to the new world order it was to create.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

"Hurry up, maggots!" Jim hollered whilst jogging in place by the computer lab's open doorway, watching his students enter. "It's still PE class, so work your muscles when you can!"

In the beige-colored room were five rows of long computer desks with said machines placed in neat parallels of each other. Some of the students for the period had already arrived and were setting up the computer game. Among them were Jeremy and Aelita, who had already returned from the Hermitage before class had begun, their previous absence going unnoticed.

Ulrich entered the lab next, wearing a face that suggested he would rather be elsewhere. Jim took notice of this. "Come on, Stern, don't limp along with a long face! This will be fun!"

The young German boy smirked before finding a spot in front of Jeremy and Aelita's row. Odd followed suit, sporting an even less enthusiastic expression. "I still don't get how this is going to help with fitness," he muttered dryly.

"Ah, you have your doubts now~" Jim grinned as he waggled a finger, "but never knock it till you try it, Della Robbia. _Cyber-Sports_ will teach you how to exercise with a computer. With all the digital technology out there these days, I figured it was time we adapted to the change. I expect you, Belpois, to do phenomenally today."

"Maybe you'll finally be able to pass PE," Aelita whispered to her adjacent boyfriend, who pouted as she giggled to herself.

"Okay, let's hold off on the chit-chat," Jim said, holding up his own copy of _Cyber-Sports_ and sitting at the front desk, "let's get this show on the road."

_...XXX..._

_Cyber-Sports_ seemed pretty simple. It involved selecting a character of choice and performing various exercise routines to earn points, while maintaining that character's stability and endurance through patterned key typing. Jeremy and Aelita handled it with no difficulties, while Odd and Ulrich had a somewhat harder time with their slower coordination with the keyboard. Some of them, though, could not even get their game started.

That some included Jim. He would never say it in three lifetimes, but Jim's computer literacy was mediocre. He had no idea where to insert the disk and initiate the gameplay, let alone understand all the computer's applications. The students could hear his frustrated mumbling as he closely examined the machine's system unit. Knowing Jim, he would never accept any help from the students or admit that he needed it. Besides, some of the people watching were enjoying his plight.

"Come on, where is the damn thing?" Jim grumbled. "Ah, here it is." It was unnoticed, but just as he pressed the button that would open the CD/DVD tray, a powerful surge of electricity snaked its way up the main power chord from the wall and into the computer.

"GAH!" Jim shouted as he felt the electric shock shoot through his body. He humorously fell back and bounced as he hit the floor, earning uncontrollable laughter from the masses who witnessed his conundrum.

"_Cyber-Sports_? Looks more like a cyber-_war_, Jim!" Odd guffawed. Next to him, Ulrich covered his mouth with a free hand to avoid losing control.

Jim cautiously rose from the floor, noticing something peculiar on his monitor. The desktop window was gone, replaced with a black screen that featured flashing letters and numbers. He was unsure as to what was happening, but knew the computer was not crashing or restarting. "Uh, could any of you tell me what's going on here?"

Of course, no one had an answer, since the same thing was occurring in each of the students' computers as well. Aelita was just as confused as everybody else, yet there was an unshakable feeling of suspicion and dread creeping up on her as she watched the numbers and letters appear in and disappear in organized sequences. She knew right away that these were programming codes, however their exact purpose escaped her.

Could it have been...? No, that was ridiculous...right?

Before she could rope Jeremy into conversation, the ominous codes vanished, followed by the reappearance of the normal desktop window and the reset _Cyber-Sports_ game.

_That was weird._

_...XXX..._

The speaker that was anchored to the corner of the building produced the familiar ringing of the school bell, announcing the end of class and the eventual start of the next one. While many students were seen traversing through the courtyard's open space like a highway, others were taking advantage of the five-minute intermission to take a load off or chat with their friends.

Yumi, Ulrich and Odd were among those killing time. The trio sat at their favorite bench, facing away from the science building of Kadic. Odd occupied the far left of the bench with crossed legs, while Ulrich had the center and Yumi the far right. The former had his arm gently draped around the latter's shoulder, being the only person she permitted such contact from.

"So the whole thing just blew up on him, huh?" Yumi stared off into space, picturing the scene with Jim as it was described to her. "You should have taken a picture for me."

Odd shrugged. "I have faith that a video of it will somehow show up on the Internet."

"Yeah," Ulrich added, "but then there were these strange codes on all of the computers. We didn't see anything wrong with it, but it freaked out Aelita a little."

Elsewhere, Aelita was arguing with Jeremy, a sight rarely captured these days. From a distance, it looked less serious than it actually was.

"I'm telling you, Jeremy, I know what I saw," Aelita insisted with a raised voice and clenched fists.

Jeremy shook his head defiantly. "Get real, Aelita; it doesn't make any sense. Besides, we killed XANA a long time ago."

"Jeremy, for two whole years, we'd seen and done things that defy all common sense and logic. What if he somehow survived?"

"Well, if you have some solid proof, I'd love to see it."

Immediately following Jeremy's suggestion, the loudspeaker on the wall began making an incredibly loud, blaring alarm that forced everyone within earshot to protect their precious eardrums with their hands. The genius couple felt their heads spinning and could hear some of the younger students screaming from discomfort. The siren-like noise climbed in decibels, until its median exploded in a shower of sparks.

The speaker box fell to the ground, still attached to the long wire that was fed through the narrow pipes that ran along the wall of the building. Everyone who had enough time to look saw a flash of purple electricity slithering up the black chord like a snake and quickly vanishing as soon as it had appeared.

"How about that? Is that the proof you need?"

_...XXX..._

Shortly after the episode with the loudspeaker, Aelita's claims of possible XANA activity began to sink in for Jeremy. They brought their other three friends to the blond genius' dorm room for an emergency meeting. Upon hearing the word _XANA_, they naturally reacted fast. But by now they were reluctant to accept that their old enemy, which they were certain they had destroyed, was back after all this time

Ulrich and Odd were both seated on Jeremy's bed, with Odd calmly eating pieces of candy from the small bag he held in his hands. He offered his roommate one, who politely turned it down. Ulrich was more concerned with what Aelita had to say about what she had seen.

"So what exactly did you see?" Yumi inquired to the pinkette sitting next to her on the small couch that Jeremy had bought a month ago.

Aelita pieced together all the visual memories in her mind involving the strange codes on her computer and the courtyard. She thought hard, knowing that all of this could have been her paranoia leading her astray. Her gut feeling triumphed in the end. "It was a visible electrical current, which moved like it had a mind of its own, and those lines of code in the computer lab earlier...they weren't natural either. I've seen things like that too many times already to make a normal conclusion."

"But we destroyed XANA," Ulrich said pointedly. "How could he still be alive?"

"I know that, but I still have my concerns. Can't we just go to factory and maybe turn on the supercomputer just to check?"

"Before we do anything," Yumi began, "what if this is all just a coincidence? Maybe it's just that our school has a crappy budget, or that our PE teacher is crazy?"

"Yumi, after all we've been through, can anything strange in _our_ lives be considered coincidence?" The young Japanese woman could not find the right words to respond to Aelita's nevertheless rhetorical question. "Now then, let's do this."

_...XXX..._

Disregarding the probable consequences for skipping part of school, the five adolescents made their way into the woods to find the old manhole cover they were so familiar with. In the sewers, they grabbed the skateboards and scooters that had been left there and rode them down the long and twisting tunnels. They reached the runoff to the river in less than ten minutes and climbed the ladder up to the bridge.

The old car factory was the exact same way they had left it; dim, dusty and creepy. Lucky for them, the ropes hanging from the girders had not worn to the point that they would snap and cause serious injury. Reaching the elevator, Jeremy pressed the hidden keypad within its threshold that would bring them to where they needed to go. Even as they took a walk down memory lane, each of the ex-Lyoko warriors had contributed to the awkward silence that created a pressure in their chests.

The thick and futuristic doors parted to give the team access to the rotunda. The motion-sensitive lights triggered the instant they walked in and the seams on the floor split. The cylindrical body of the supercomputer rose from the shutter-like opening, going higher and higher into its three sections. Coolant cascaded down from the top, running through the small ducts that ran along the machine's surface. As they watched, the five warriors could all feel the rather low temperature of the room.

"Wow, it's freezing in here," Odd shivered, seeing his own breath as he spoke.

"Yeah, it's even colder than my dad's heart," Ulrich added.

"The supercomputer provided all the heat when it was active," Jeremy explained. He approached the tall structure and reached for the small symbol with the eye of XANA on it. The cover lifted and produced the lever that would activate everything. Jeremy couldn't help but reminisce about the first time he pulled it, when his life changed forever. His fingers inched closer and closer to the grip, waiting for his brain and nerves to register the feel and texture of it, and...

"Wait!" Jeremy's hand froze at Ulrich's plea. "Are you sure about this? We could still be wrong."

"But I saw XANA's codes!" Aelita asserted. "Do it, Jeremy, or I will myself."

"Yeah, turn the heat on, please!" a shaking Odd whined

Taking a deep breath, Jeremy collected himself and pulled the lever upward. With that, the lights on the supercomputer's enormous system unit turned a glittering gold. A humming sound could be heard as the room's lights became brighter.

_Let's hope we don't regret this, _Jeremy thought.

_...XXX..._

On the screens of the supercomputer's interface two floors above the actual machine itself, Jeremy was inspecting everything he had access to on Lyoko and beyond. The others stood and sat around him as he worked, either impatient or just bored.

"Well, everything looks to be in order," Jeremy announced before noticing a few important chunks of data missing from Lyoko's files. "I'll start a super-scan, and we'll soon know for sure if XANA's back in town." With a few keystrokes, the scan began. Several minutes into it, there was no strange reading or unusual activity to be found.

"Nothing on the data flux, or on the sensors. I'll check the towers." Again, there was nothing. "There's just no sign of XANA at all."

"Well XANA's not the type to just drop in and say 'I'm back'," Aelita stated knowingly. "He could be in another virtual world."

"We destroyed all the Replikas," Jeremy reasoned, "and there are no other worlds as complex as Lyoko. If the super-scan didn't pick up anything, it means there really is nothing to get worked up about. XANA is dead."

It didn't take a genius like Jeremy to know that the pink-haired princess of Lyoko was irked. Odd, Yumi and Ulrich felt the great discomfort that came with an angry Aelita creeping up on them. As a precaution, Yumi inched back toward her boyfriend while Odd scooted away along the floor.

Instead of an outburst to make a point, Aelita's response, though one of desperation and perhaps defiance, was surprisingly calm and collect. "_I'll_ go to Lyoko, then."

At that moment, a spark that had long since gone out in Odd's mind had started up again. He jumped straight up from his position on the floor and said, "Great idea! Let's go!"

Yumi and Ulrich looked at one another with cocked eyebrows. Meanwhile, Jeremy turned to his girlfriend with the most confused look. "Why?" he could only ask.

"I want to go to the core," Aelita explained. "If not to look for XANA, then to at least be near my father's resting place. Please."

Jeremy understood her intentions in an instant. It was in Sector Five that Aelita had last interacted with Franz Hopper before he sacrificed himself for the anti-XANA program. In two hundred microseconds, his virtual body was ripped apart and absorbed into the anti-virus to fuel it. By all human standards, and for lack of a better word, Aelita's long-lost father was dead. However, he had been spread throughout the network with the anti-virus, which, from a computer's perspective, did not mean he had truly passed on.

Not wanting to be insensitive, Jeremy gently nodded his head in approval. Aelita quickly power-walked over to the elevator door and entered as it opened, waiting for Odd to follow her inside. They waited as the car took them one floor down to the scanners, remembering what every Lyoko warrior had to do when preparing for virtualization. When the lift stopped and opened, they laid their eyes on the four cylindrical pods that would take them to Lyoko. Odd hurriedly climbed inside one of the scanners and watched Aelita enter her own.

_"The scanners ready; preparing for transfer,"_ Jeremie announced over the intercom as the doors of the scanners slid shut. Odd managed to flash a peace sign with his hand before he disappeared from view, making Aelita smile. The two subjects of the virtualization process felt themselves being turned around on an axis as the machines worked their magic. Countless memories of the act flashed before their lidded eyes as blinding light began to dominate their vision.

_"Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Odd. Virtualization."_

* * *

**Sector Five  
**

Remembering that there was always a short drop when arriving in the virtual world, Odd and Aelita kept their feet below them as they landed on the floor of Sector Five's arena. Naturally, they scanned the immediate area around them: a round, domed room with blue walls and the eye of XANA decorating the surface on which they stood. To their left was the narrow passageway that led to the larger core zone that made up the structure's main interior.

"This is awesome!" Odd exclaimed, staring at the open palms of his feline hands. He noticed that there were some minor changes to his avatar since the last time he was virtualized. While he retained the theme of a purple cat, complete with paws and a tail, the extra set of ears above Odd's temples had disappeared, along with the symbol depicting his dog Kiwi urinating. The dark violet stripes along his bodysuit had become yellow as well. The most notable change were his hands, which had dark gray gauntlets extending from his forearms and wrapping around his feline fingers. Curious, he aimed at the wall and remembered how to fire his trademark laser arrow. Instead of a single projectile, out came three individual arrow heads that impacted against the surface of the room with the speed to match that of a bullet.

"OMG, this is sweet! I almost wish there were some monsters to fight."

Odd saw Aelita running for the corridor. From what he could see, her avatar had been slightly altered too. She was still an elf in pink, but now the sides of her suit and her once transparent skirt were magenta. It still made her look as cute, playful and extra confident as before, yet also more serious.

"Wait, where are you going? Hello~?" Aelita gave no answer as she disappeared behind the curve of the passage. Odd sighed in defeat and to the thin air around him, asked, "Hey Jeremy, can you send me the Overboard? Aelita went ahead of me and I need to catch up."

_"Sure thing."_

Two seconds later, the familiar shape of the Overboard came into being at Odd's feet, who stepped up on it and rode it leisurely down the twists and turns of the hall where Aelita would be.

In a few minutes he caught up to her in the cavernous labyrinth of the Carthage sector, eventually arriving at the only known tower to be found in that part of Lyoko. The tower, like their avatars, had undergone changes to its physical appearance. Instead of a tall beige cylinder, it was rectangular and colored like granite.

Aelita stepped closer to the structure, staring at it with awe and wonder. Circling around it and her was Odd who was clearly enjoying himself. He was doing various flips and loops in midair with his board, taking advantage of Lyoko's altered laws of physics. "You know, it would be a shame to just let this all go to waste," Odd was suggesting. "If we wanted, we could open our own theme park, or one of those RPGs you see in anime!" He jumped from his board over a high ledge, making a full front flip and landing on his ride once again. "Lyokoland: a place of virtual adventure and imagination~! That'll be the slogan."

The purple car boy had of course failed to notice that Aelita was too spaced out to hear him speak. She was preoccupied with conflicting thoughts concerning Lyoko, her father, and XANA. She clearly heard what Jeremy had reported, and the apparent lack of XANA activity made this world seem so lifeless.

She ran her delicate hand over the tower's surface. She could feel it, but it had no temperature or texture, sensations that she had grown to love so much. However, it was this lack of sensation that she had a soft spot for. Lyoko was once her home, and she always felt a physical connection with it since she was first awoken in it. She knew better than anyone that this world could be used for destruction on Earth, but did that mean it had to be buried and forgotten?

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Securing her grip on Ulrich's arm, Yumi used the downward leverage to bring them both to the floor, flipping Ulrich over her and on his back. She flipped back up and came to rest on Ulrich's chest, pinning him to the soft gym mat. He quickly countered with excessive use of his superior brute strength, rolling Yumi off of him and with the momentum of his action, rolled with her and was now keeping her secured against the mat as she had before with him.

Ulrich and Yumi had returned to Kadic a while ago after voicing their desires to do so. Despite the fact that they loved and supported Aelita, the pair still had their doubts about her claims to XANA's alleged rebirth, if that was even the proper term for it. They saw little point in just waiting around in the factory, so they left. Arriving at the campus, they decided to have a quick, private Pencak Silat match in the gymnasium.

Out of breath and sweaty, Ulrich and Yumi took the time to look into each other's eyes. The fact that they were in a rather suggestive position did not go unnoticed, the observation of which elicited smiles and a few exhausted chuckles. They had been intimate before many times after they had started dating, and this situation, as immature as it was, reminded them of it. Unable to resist the temptation, they leaned into each other for a kiss...

"Ah! Very good, you two!"

Ulrich jumped back and Yumi sat up. Standing in the doorway was Jim, carrying a loose bag filled with sports equipment. "Extra-curricular sports, I see. Good for you, since the _Cyber-Sports_ are officially canceled; too virtual," he shrugged, "and nothing compared to real contact, sweat, and physical exertion. Well you two carry on; I've got to go change the fuses." Jim set down his baggage and walked out the door without looking back.

A few seconds went by as Ulrich and Yumi looked at each other, and broke into happy laughter. Same old Jim, same old awkward misadventures at Kadic. As they got up, put away the mat and changed back to their ordinary clothes, they could not help but wonder what the others may have been up to.

* * *

**Factory**

Jeremy could not have expected what happened next to actually occur. Well, maybe he did, in the back of his mind at least, what with the insight he had obtained from being a Lyoko warrior. What appeared on the screen was something he did not want to believe, but as a scientist, he sometimes had to accept what his eyes perceived as reality.

Bringing his headset closer to his mouth, he shakily said, "Odd, Aelita? We've got a tower activated in Sector Five."

_"Uh, could you repeat that, Einstein?"_ Odd asked with a tone of confusion and disbelief.

"I said there's a tower activate in Sector Five." The statement was still hard to grasp, but Jeremy was acting on instinct rather that intellect.

_"But the only one is right here, and it looks fine."_

"This is a new tower," explained the blond egghead. Doing his best to remain calm, he had taken apart the map of the sector to find this new tower located deeper in Carthage's superstructure. Even as he worked hard to figure things out, he felt himself becoming very stressed. Perhaps he was having a panic attack.

* * *

**Sector Five**

Aelita and Odd could hear something heavy coming from the entrance to the corridor behind them. From the dark opening rolled a trio of Megatanks, who stopped abruptly and displayed the lateral eye spots on their shells. As expected of them, the monsters' spherical shields parted to reveal the eye of XANA, building up with the energy to launch their mighty laser arches.

While Odd cautiously inched toward the Overboard, Aelita stood her ground and glared at the abominations, forming two pink glowing blobs in her palms. Before either of them could react, the Megatank directly in their path discharged its weapon. Just like they remembered, the solid wall of red energy surged out in a growing arch, threatening to devirtualize them with one direct hit.

Odd's board carried him to safety while Aelita crouched and dodged the attack. Lying on her side, the Lyoko princess saw the second Megatank on her left about to fire at her. She involuntarily flinched in preparation for the inevitable, but instead felt herself being jerked away and dragged through empty space. She opened her eyes to see Odd holding her right hand, pulling her body along behind the airborne Overboard.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks to you."

Odd turned to look ahead and avoided a collision. "Jeremy! I thought you said XANA had definitely kicked it!"

_"I-I don't understand. The scan was certain; there was nothing, and then the warning system went off."_

"Well that helps!" Odd shouted sarcastically. "What would you have us do now?"

_"What we used to do: find and deactivate the tower. After that, we can figure out what to do next."_

By then, Odd had released his grip on Aelita's hand, shaking off the extra weight for better maneuverability. She fell for only a moment, running her hand over her star bracelet to trigger the translucent pink wings that sprouted from her back. In two flaps, Aelita had stabilized herself was gliding down into the mouth of the tunnel, with Odd right behind her. The Megatanks closed their shells and rolled after them, luckily being too confined to attack while in pursuit.

_"I'll guide you two," _Jeremy assured. _"Take a right!"_

Odd angled his board in the recommended direction and Aelita tipped her body to yaw with him. They entered a large and uneven chamber with the only way out being another passageway. They entered swiftly, looking back to see if they had shaken the monsters. To their annoyance, the Megatanks had made sure not to lose them, following them at a distance of less than a city block.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

"Why can't they just put one big button with the label that it's the one?" Jim mumbled incredulously. In front of him was an open computer cabinet filled with all the parts of Kadic's main electrical distribution board. He scratched his head in bafflement as he tried desperately to interpret the maze of subsidiary circuits, fuses and their breakers.

Since the computer and loudspeaker incidents earlier, some of the school's electrical systems had been on the fritz, the suspected cause being a blown fuse or misplaced conductor. As Ms. Hertz and Mr. Reilly were unavailable at the moment, Principal Delmas had asked Jim to have a look. A bad choice it would seem, as he had already proved his incompetence with engineering to his students with the _Cyber-Sports_ games. The hundreds of lights, buttons, and wires were overloading the grumpy gym teacher.

Reading the only written words he could find, Jim belatedly realized that one of the larger switches was crackling with electric sparks. Once he got a good look at it, the sparks intensified until some of them landed in his eyes. Jim yelled in pain, stumbling back with his hands over his face. In front of him suddenly appeared an inky black cloud that seemed to moves as if it were alive. It paused, expanding itself and taking on a general humanoid shape. Details began to set in until the polymorphic specter had completely copied the look of Jim Moralés.

Letting his vision return, Jim's eyes captured what looked like a mirror image of himself. The man remained speechless as he paled. His doppelganger stared back at him with an emotionless face, its eyes flickering with a strange symbol. "Wow," he said, "that shock from the computer must be messing with my brain."

The phony Jim extended a beefy arm and flicked the original's forehead with a finger. Instantly, Jim slumped to the floor and against the wall, an amusing expression on his unconscious face. The specter moved on and out the door, intent on completing the mission XANA had programmed it for.

After a few minutes of walking, it came to the door of the gymnasium, stopping only to open it with the same etiquette that a real human might exhibit. The movements were albeit robotic in nature, but not so much that it would be noticed by someone who wasn't looking for suspicious behavior. Once inside, it spotted Ulrich and Yumi communicating with each other. It could sense the source codes within their bodies, and heard the ringtone from Ulrich's cellular phone that they seemed to be unaware of. It estimated a ninety-eight-point-nine-percent chance that it was Jeremy trying to warn them of the physical danger they were now in.

"Oh hey there, Jim," Ulrich gestured with his head to the approaching teacher. "We were just finishing up now; we're done exercising for today." He was ignored by who he thought was Jim as the specter grabbed hold of his shoulders with a painfully tight grip. Ulrich quickly felt that something was off about Jim's behavior. "Jim, what are you doing? That hurts, let go of...," suddenly, Ulrich felt a combination of dizziness, nausea and a loss of balance the longer he remained in the iron grip. His words transformed into a sickly groan of discomfort.

"Hey, get off of him!" Yumi yelled, shoving the fake Jim in the shoulder. He fell quicker than she expected. Ulrich stumbled around, his eyesight losing its natural focus.

"I can't see right," he managed to get out, bringing his hand to his face just to prove it to himself. Yumi took his arm and brought it over her shoulders, supporting him before he fell over. She led them out to the courtyard towards the dormitory building.

"Don't worry, I'll get you to the infirmary," Yumi grunted, finding the job of helping Ulrich carry half his weight a little tiresome, "it's not that far."

Her cellphone began ringing and vibrating in her pocket. _Must be Jeremy,_ she thought. She strained to reach for it with one arm, but eventually grabbed hold of the device. Hitting the button on the screen to accept the call, she flipped back some of her hair and placed it to her ear. "Jeremy?...What?..._XANA_?...A _specter_?"

"Well that explains a lot, doesn't it?" Ulrich slurred.

Coming out the gym's back door was the specter, staring them down like a cat would do when stalking its prey. As he neared them, Ulrich and Yumi turned tail and ran as fast as they could together.

* * *

**Sector Five**

The activated tower was in a secluded corner of the sector, supported on a set of raised blue blocks that were connected to a trail of other blocks that formed a kind of bridge. Chunks of the tower's body were separated yet held together by some unseen gravitational force. Between these spaces as a glowing red aura, signifying its control by XANA.

A winged Aelita and air-surfing Odd zipped out from the tunneled labyrinth and made a ninety-degree left turn to follow the path to the tower. Before Aelita could consider landing and entering the monolith, the Megatanks rolled into view and began firing their laser arches at both of them. The Lyoko warriors were forced to dodge, making any further progress with their mission impossible.

"You go ahead! I'll take care of them!" Odd called to Aelita. He flew high and angled the front of the Overboard downward, heading straight for the attacking Megatanks and firing volleys of laser arrows. One of them was hit directly in the eye by the raining projectiles, bursting into what resembled red shards of glass that imploded a second later.

"One down, two to go!" As Odd halted the Overboard in time and maneuvered away, the closest Megatank pivoted slightly and fired, narrowly missing Odd but destroying his vehicle. The cat boy used his catlike reflexes to land softly on the bridge. _I forgot how tough this could be._

The two Megatanks had Odd in their sights, firing their laser arches at the same time. He jumped forward and spun his body like an American football, evading the touch of the solid walls of energy that nearly sandwiched him between them. Before landing, he extended his arms and fired more laser arrows, shooting and destroying the Megatank directly in front of him. As he feet touched the ground, Odd was unable to anticipate the follow-up shot from the other monster behind him and was devirtualized with one direct hit.

Being alone on Lyoko when faced with a Megatank was a daunting scenario. Aelita felt vulnerable without the protection of another teammate fighting by her side. Regardless, she braced herself to give it her all if need be.

She flapped to evade the attack of one of the Megatanks, a pink energy ball forming in her right hand. She hurled it at the bulky construct like a dodge ball player would, hitting the exposed insides land engulfing its body in the blob's mass. Once it exploded, the pinkette alighted on the walkway and swept her fingers over her bracelet again, making her wings disappear. She spun around on her heal to the tower, only to freeze when two Krabs were deployed and began making their way towards her.

* * *

**Factory**

The scanner Odd had first entered opened with a hiss, spewing vaporized coolant as it did so. Though his body on Earth was intact, his nerves told him he had experienced something akin to running right into a fence post at a parallel angle. He clutched his aching chest and staggered out of the cramped space, heading to the elevator door and pressing the button to open it. "So much for that amusement park idea," he muttered.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Yumi and Ulrich hurried to the manhole cover, ignoring the ambiance of the forest and the retreating animals around them. Still dazed, Ulrich required Yumi's help to keep up with her, who allowed him to lean against the trunk of a nearby tree while she moved the heavy lid out of place. Curious, she looked up at him to visually judge his condition. "Are you getting better?" she asked.

"I guess," Ulrich lightly groaned, "but not fast enough. When that specter touched me, I think he transmitted something. My eyesight's still like I need glasses."

Yumi took Ulrich's hand and graciously guided him down into the hole with her and covered it behind them. Seeing circumstances made the use of the skateboards impossible, they ran together down the long, seemingly endless sewer tunnel. Their rapid footfalls echoed off the concrete walls as they moved, careful to avoid the occasional patch of sludge or sneaker-sized rat that got in their way. After what seemed like an hour of exhausting running, the landmarks they recognized suggested they were only halfway to the ladder that would take them to the bridge of the factory.

"Stop, stop!" Ulrich heaved. "I need to rest...please."

The Japanese girl nodded in agreement. "Just s-sit down right here," she panted, slumping against the dirty wall and sharing huge gulps of oxygen. Their faces were reddened and a grimy sheen of sweat had formed on their foreheads.

_They need our help, _Yumi mulled, _but we can't get there in time like this._ The decision she made next was a very difficult one, however the fact that Jeremy and Aelita were probably in need of another helping hand outweighed her instinct to remain by Ulrich's side. Reluctantly, she took out her phone and called Jeremy. Once he picked up, she skipped all customary greeting and got straight to the point. "Jeremy, I'm in the sewer with Ulrich at the halfway mark. The specter disguised itself as Jim and attacked him. He's not doing well, and I won't make it to the factory in time trying to bring him with me. How are you and the others holding up?"

_"Not any better than you," _Jeremy reported despondently. _"Odd's been devirtualized and Aelita's alone on Lyoko; she needs your help. I'll send Odd over to Ulrich and you worry about us over here."_

"Got it; I'll be right there," Yumi said before hanging up. She looked at Ulrich and instantly felt guilt building up inside her at the thought of abandoning him. "Don't worry," she assured the both of them, gently resting a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, "Odd will be here any minute now, so sit tight and wait for him."

Ulrich nodded to confirm that he understood. With that, Yumi got back up and dashed down the tunnel, praying that she was not too late to make a difference.

* * *

**Sector Five**

The two Krabs had been quick to pursue Aelita, initiating a game of cat-and-mouse. Outnumbered and outgunned, Aelita took it upon herself to, somewhat literally, hide right under their "noses". Losing their target, the Krabs simply stood together at the end of the walkway, blind to the fact that just below them, Aelita was flat against the side of the blue block, standing on a lower ledge.

"Jeremy, I need help," she whispered, "I can't do this by myself."

_"Don't worry, Aelita; Yumi's on her way right now," _Jeremie said assuredly.

* * *

**Sewer**

The eerie silence of the sewers was making Ulrich increasingly uncomfortable. Yumi had left a while ago and he was still feeling the effects of the specter's touch. Every sound, movement and shadow presented the implication of coming danger. He had never felt so vulnerable before, and that was saying a lot.

His ears picked up the rapid pits and pats of somebody's shoes against the concrete path, and they were probably running. Ulrich could not tell which direction they were coming from with the resonating echoes in the way, so he began to tense up in fear. A shadow ran along the corner of the wall next to him, which startled Ulrich so much that he nearly pulled himself into the rank river of sewage. He tried to flee when a hand gripped his shoulder until he was staring into the blurred image of Odd's face.

"It's okay, it's me Odd," the pointy-haired boy said quickly. His voice made Ulrich stop struggling, and take deep, calming breaths. "Jeremy told me everything. The specter's disguised as Jim, right?"

"Yeah," Ulrich exhaled.

Odd took his friend's right arm and pulled it around his shoulder, helping him to his feet. "Come on, pal, let's get going." He guided Ulrich down the path, unaware that they were being followed from a distance.

* * *

**Sector Five**

Hopeful, Aelita stayed where she was for a few more minutes, waiting to see if Yumi would arrive or if the Krabs left before then. Something in between occurred when she heard the hum of the Overwing and the Krabs' limbs clacking against the sector's surface. She climbed up to see Yumi in her ninja-themed avatar, riding her vehicle and drawing the Krabs away from their quarry.

After Yumi put a good distance between herself and the Krabs, she steered the Overwing into a wide banking turn, bringing her around and back to Aelita. Her appearance had also changed on Lyoko. Her form-fitting shinobi garb was wrapped around her body in a different matter than before, and had darkened from two tints of violet to a slightly darker reddish-purple. The metallic bracket over the lower half of her ribs no longer fully encompassed her torso and lacked the yellow cloth on her back. The little flowers on her hips had been replaced by a larger one on the corner of her chest.

"Get to the tower; I'll cover you." She revved the handle bars as Aelita brought out her wings again, letting her teammate go first. Yumi angled the Overwing over the walkway and sped towards the tower and the two Krabs. The tall crustaceans sent a barrage of red laser bolts at the ninja as she got closer, yet their aim fell short. As soon as she was ten meters from the monsters, Yumi made a full back-flip off her vehicle.

The runaway Overwing drifted off to the right and smashed into one of the Krabs at full speed, destroying it in a blaze of ruby crystals. Landing on the walkway, Yumi produced her tessen fans in both hands, throwing them with the correct posture and technique. The spinning fans mirrored one another in flights, crossing over once before going up through the underside of the Krab's carapace and out the top. Gleaming white slits had opened where the fans had entered and exited, which seemed to paralyze the monster before it exploded.

Right outside the tower, Aelita gave Yumi a thumbs up and a smile as the fans returned to her. She walked through the tower as if it were made of air, a rippling pattern forming on the monolith's surface as she made contact. The inside of the tower was exactly like it had been before, with a platform depicting the eye of XANA and walls with code interfaces.

* * *

**Sewer**

"Look, there's the grating." Odd pointed to the bars that separated them from the town's river "We just have to climb the ladder and we'll be fine."

"Wait, I think somebody's behind us," Ulrich motioned with his head. Odd craned his head back to see what looked like Jim slowly following them. If memory served, a specter would try to seriously injure and ultimately kill any one of the Lyoko warriors, depending on XANA's plan. If their lives were indeed the prize, they were both sitting ducks unless Odd could buy time until the tower was deactivated.

Odd set Ulrich down and turned back to confront the doppelganger. He balled his hands into fists, cocked his arms, and lightly hopped from foot to foot. "Come on big guy," he goaded, " I've got your _Cyber-Sports_ right here."

He swung, but the hyper young man found his fist arrested in the grip of the specter's hand. He sawing again with his left hand, but it too was caught. As the specter forced Odd to his knees, he suddenly felt disoriented and under the weather. His muscles were betraying him as he felt his body tremble.

* * *

**Sector Five**

In the tower, Aelita let herself be lifted straight up to the smaller platform a couple stories above her. Reaching it, she gently alighted on it and stepped into the center. In front of her appeared the interface that asked for her digital identification. She answered by placing her right hand on the thin but solid surface of the panel. A fading print was visible as words began to form:

**CODE:**

**LYOKO_**

* * *

**Sewer**

Crack-like patterns developed on the specter's skin as it held Odd down. It suddenly exploded in a dazzling flash of greenish light. Odd, who was now just as dazed as Ulrich was, smirked with the knowledge that the rest of the team had succeeded.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

After Jeremy and Ulrich had scanned themselves, the group had returned to Kadic to see the end of the schoolday. Jim had been discovered unconscious in the supply closet and was brought to the infirmary to recover. Once he awoke, he had no memory of the specter. The staff had come to assume that he accidentally electrocuted himself and passed out from the shock.

The five friends kept quiet about the incident, and went to their leader's dorm room to discuss the events that had transpired but a few minutes ago. There were many questions to be asked and only a few answers to give.

"Okay," Ulrich spoke up, "to ask what everybody's thinking, is XANA dead, yes or no?"

"The answer would be both yes _and _no," replied Jeremy. "When Odd, Aelita, and Yumi were virtualized, I noticed some strange red glowing auras around their digital signatures, which have never been there before."

Odd leaned back against the room's poster of Albert Einstein. "Okay, so what are they?"

"They're codes—source codes that belong to XANA. Two years ago, when we launched the anti-XANA program, he must have somehow injected those codes into your bodies, just to make sure he didn't die completely."

"How?" asked a perplexed Yumi.

"The four of you have gone to Lyoko more than anyone else," Jeremy continued, "and you all had contact with something of XANA's, whether it was the possessed William or even a monster's laser. It's the only explanation I can think of. And if that's the case, then you all have them inside you, and the specter was sent to recover them."

"Why would he go through that trouble?" Odd questioned.

"Most likely to regain his full power," Aelita surmised. She had been considering the possibilities for a while and had come to her present conclusion. "If he could only send a polymorphic specter after us, then he is probably working at less than half his total capacity. Once he had all of his source codes back, there will be nothing to stop him from taking over the network again."

"Then why don't we turn off the supercomputer and lock him up?" Yumi offered.

Aelita shook her head. "Impossible; there was XANA activity before we hit the switch. That means he's found another place to access the real world beside Lyoko. I hate to say it, but if we want this to end, we have to take him down once and for all."

The gang looked at each other multiple times, knowing that what Aelita said was true. After the silence, Jeremy stood up and announced, "The Lyoko warriors are back, then. Who's in?" He held out his hand, which was taken by Aelita, then Yumi, followed by Ulrich and Odd. From that moment on, they were officially back in business as protectors of mankind.

* * *

**Aleppo**

Enjoying the warmth of the open fireplace, Alan Meyer flipped through another page the novel he was reading. He sat in a comfortable red and black armchair that matched the design of the tapestries and furniture of the living room. Though his stay in the rebel-controlled half of Aleppo was to be short, he had taken measure to ensure his time spent here wold be done in comfort.

Meyer was the chairman and chief executive officer of Deckard, Incorporated, earning the position through hard work and the connections he had. Without his ingenuity, the corporation would have never attained the level of success it had in recent times. It was thanks to him that Deckard, Inc. was thriving.

As he neared the end of the chapter, the man could hear footsteps coming from behind. He closed the book and craned his head to the right to see over his shoulder. Entering the room was a middle-aged man in a black suit and tie. The man, Erik Graven, was the administrative manager for Deckard and Meyer's unofficial right-hand man.

"Sir, they're waiting for you," he said.

Meyer was on his feet, and with a smooth, charismatic voice, said, "Thank you, my good man. How many have come?"

"Eight dozen."

"Wonderful; as I predicted." He slipped on the black leather trench coat that had been draped over the chair. It went well with his gloves, short sleeve shirt, pants and boots, which were all black as well. His light brown hair had already been slicked back with gel and given a little fluff to it. He produced a pair of dark sunglasses from a pocket and placed them over his eyes. "Let's not keep them waiting."

Meyer and Graven walked over to the wood double doors and pushed them open, entering a wide corridor with more than a dozen armed commandos standing at attention, outfitted with full combat gear and automatic weapons. They were field operatives for Deckard Security, a subsidiary of the corporation established as a private military company.

"Anyway, sir, we've secured the area. No patrols or prying eyes within half a klick," Graven continued.

"What about drones or air traffic?"

"We have deployed all countermeasures."

When Meyer pushed through the next set of doors, he stepped out onto an open raised platform not unlike a stage and was met with the sound of a deafening cheer. In the courtyard of the large sand-colored household were dozens of armed militants, yelling a chorus of unintelligible words as Meyer presented himself to them. Several commandos flanked him while Graven remained inside, not wanting to be seen.

There was indeed logistical assistance provided by Deckard, Inc., including food, water, medicine, and weaponry. Meyer had quietly distributed his goods to the rebel groups along with the simple mention of his name, all the while disclosing as little about himself as possible. It wasn't out of the kindness of his heart, but for the political support that he needed. To the revolutionaries in the area, he had become an object of mystery and reverence. Then, members of the various factions that stood against the Syrian government had been invited to meet this enigmatic man who had so generously given away all these valuable materials for the war effort. Now here he was, standing before them like some prophet.

Meyer held out an arm to silently ask for the uproar to cease. The crowd held their tongues as he began to speak. _"__alslam 'lykm ya akhwan . أna sahr w أrhb bkm fy Phoenix. jyt ala hna llastma' ala hdhh alhqyqة ، wla tsm' ..."_

* * *

Translations:

_"¡Oye! Quítate de ahí!"_—"Hey! Get away from there!"

_"__alslam 'lykm ya akhwan . أna sahr w أrhb bkm fy Phoenix. jyt ala hna llastma' ala hdhh alhqyqة ، wla tsm' ..."_—"Hello, My brothers. I am the Magician, and I welcome you to Phoenix. You came here to listen to the truth, and you shall have it..."

* * *

**_Please review. I hope you enjoyed this opening chapter better than the other one._**


	2. The Cortex

_Disclaimer: no matter how much I try to deny it, I simply don't any part of the Code Lyoko franchise. I cry myself to sleep over it almost every night. JK!_

* * *

**Neuilly-sur-Seine**

The sedan cruised down the main road of the semi-suburban neighborhood like a ghost. With its matte-black paint job and hydrogen fuel cell-powered engine, it was virtually invisible and inaudible as it moved through the night. Even on a clear day, no human eyes could penetrate the film of its heavily tinted windows. The driver had left the lights off, favoring the night vision built into the windshield's heads-up display. Though it looked ordinary on the outside from a distance, the vehicle had also been retrofitted with bulletproof glass and powerful armor plates within its body panels.

In the driver's seat, Grigory Nictapolus kept his gaze fixed directly forward, looking hypnotized by the many digital gauges and icons of the HUD, scratching away an itch in his beard every now and then. The drive from the airport had been long and tiresome, though his training had enabled him to bear with it for the time being. As he started to think about where he would rather be than in a Parisian suburb at half-past-two in the morning, a low growl from behind brought his mind back into focus.

"They know we're getting close," the attractive blonde-haired woman sitting next to him intuited. Eva Skinner, a fellow spy and assassin accompanying Grigory on his mission, had been rather quiet for most of the car ride except for their time of departure from the airport and now. She had been replaying the mission briefing in her head over and over again: capture Professor Philippe Broulet, a French government scientist and ex-Project: Carthage researcher, and transport him to the Deckard, Inc. HQ with as little collateral damage as possible. Her concentration had been broken when Grigory's two Rottweilers, Vladimir and Sasha, had begun to stir. She knew they could sense that they would be stopping soon.

"They're smarter than most dogs," Grigory said, his thick Russian accent reminding Eva of something straight out of a film or video game.

As the car made a right turn on the next intersection, the monotonous voice of the car's artificial intelligence crackled through the stereo system, saying, _"Your destination is exactly twenty-point-zero-eight meters to your right."_ Grigory pulled into a driveway that led to a large white house with a spacious front lawn. After parking and shutting off the engine, the burly man reached for his holster and pulled out a pistol with a fat sound suppressor. Eva had her own sidearm in addition to a pair of compact submachine guns, all of which were suppressed as well.

Donning night-vision goggles, the two assassins simultaneously exited the vehicle, with Eva immediately going for the front door whilst her partner opened one of the rear passenger doors and went to the trunk to retrieve more equipment. The massive dogs bounded out and onto the lawn, stretching their sore bodies before joining their master by the entrance to the house. Even if a pedestrian or another car were to pass by at this hour, there was little chance they could see or hear them in the darkness. Eva was dressed in a form-fitting bodysuit zipped up past her bustline with a utility belt, some tactical accessories, shin-high boots and fingerless gloves, all jet-black. Grigory had a similar pair of gloves, but wore a sable leather jacket over a T-shirt and a pair of cargo pants and combat boots. They were almost totally invisible.

Eva unlocked the door with a small instrument and gingerly pushed it open, letting the animals enter first. The two Rottweilers crept into the living room like they were stalking prey, holding their heads high to sniff the air and listen for any sudden noises. The humans were right behind them, sweeping the immediate area with their eyes, weapons at the ready. Eva unhooked a miniature spy drone that resembled a remote-controlled toy from her belt and tossed it into the air. The small device hovered with the use of four small rotors extending from its body, which then carried it away to the adjacent kitchen and onward. Integrated cameras taking hundreds of photos each second created a three-dimensional map of the home's interior that was sent to the assassins' wrist computers as holographic readouts. Scanning every nook and cranny like this would give them an idea of where their target might be.

They inspected every room the little drone had flown through, including the living room, kitchen, den, garage, laundry room and bathroom. There was no sign of human activity in any of them. The house had at least three people living it: the professor himself, his wife and one of their sons who helped care for them in their old age. It was a priority to ensure that they did not run into one of them if they were awake for any reason. The standard policy of Phoenix was to kill any and all witnesses on sight, which would complicate things for this particular mission. This was, after all, the abode of a government scientist in the capitol of one of the remaining world powers.

From the den, Grigory activated his small headset and asked, "Anything yet?"

_"Negative," _Eva replied.

"Let's regroup and search upstairs."

The two Phoenix agents met in the living room where they had started. There was nobody on this floor that they could find, so they agreed that it was time to search the second floor. As if he had read their minds, Vladimir was sitting at the bottom of the staircase with one of his front paws propped up on the lowest step. As Grigory ordered his pets to stay put, Eva guided the drone to scan ahead. Once it was finished with a detailed map of everything above, they slowly made their way up the carpeted steps and into a hallway with a few doors. The first one on the left was another bathroom, and the next one on the right was the bedroom of Philippe's grown son. Eva made her way inside and sprayed the sleeping man's nose with chloroform from a small bottle, guaranteeing that he would be out until they were long gone.

Grigory was already at the next door, gently twisting its chrome knob and pushing it open. Inside at the other side of the room was a large bed with two people asleep in it. Target acquired. He signaled for Eva to follow him in before sneaking up to the unconscious elderly couple and zeroing in on Philippe, looming over him like the boogeyman. The female spy went to the opposite side of the bed and angled her canister of chloroform into the face of Mrs. Broulet, who lay on her side with her back to the specialist. She sprayed the powerful substance over the older woman's nostrils, knocking her out. As she did, though, the sound of the compressed air that propelled the chemical compound from its container was sharp enough to rouse Philippe from his slumber. Groggy and fatigued, it took him a few seconds to register that the figure standing over him wasn't his wife or his son, but in fact a total stranger. He nearly jumped out of his skin and started to shout, but Grigory brought a hand over his mouth to silence him before any sound could escape his lips.

"Please try not to struggle, Professor," the younger man whispered, his head hovering over Philippe's terrified face. "It would be very unfortunate if we had to hurt you." As he spoke, Grigory took out a small syringe and pierced a vein in the old man's neck, injecting him with a long-lasting sedative. The fear in his eyes vanished as he quickly lost consciousness. The Russian man couldn't help but grin, knowing that he had just finished the hardest part of the mission with little to no difficulty at all. He switched his headset to another channel. "Homestead, this is Nightstalker-One. We have secured the target and will be en route to Orly Airport. I repeat, we have secured the target and will be en route to Orly Airport, over."

_"Homestead acknowledges. Good work, Nightstalker,"_ a deep voice resonated through the device's earpiece. _"We have transport on standby and will give you a max time of eight hours to rendezvous, over."_

"Copy that. Over and out." Grigory cut the transmission and turned to Eva. "Let's get his things and go."

Nodding, the young woman immediately went to work with helping collect Philippe's personal belongings. After a few minutes they had secured his toothbrush, glasses, and medicine. They were all gathered up with a few changes of clothes from his dresser and stuffed everything into a travel case that had been found in the room's walk-in closet. They then left the room with Grigory supporting Philippe's upper torso over his shoulder and Eva supporting his legs and dragging the case behind her. Heading downstairs and into the living room, the professor was set down on the floor to have his hands and feet bound before he was placed in a body bag. The operatives carried their load out the door and to the car, putting the man and his "luggage" in the trunk and letting the dogs climb into the back seats.

"So, how do you think this one went?" Eva asked as they simultaneously entered the automobile.

"Better than the mishap in Washington," Grigory answered truthfully. He started the car up and addressed the AI. "Give me the fastest route to Orly Airport with minimal traffic."

_"Confirmed. Calculating route now..."_

* * *

**Factory**

"Ugh, where _is_ he?" Jeremy checked his watch, pacing back and forth around the room while Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita sat around the supercomputer's monitor. "It's already been ten minutes and he's late again like every other time," he fumed.

"We could just start without him," Yumi suggested. The Lyoko warriors had agreed to meet at the factory after breakfast after Jeremy had discovered something in the digital sea. Odd was late as always, and the rest of the group was now on pins and needles.

The clanking of the elevator and the turn of the door's large tumbler signaled their hyper blond friend's arrival. Odd ran out and skidded to a stop when the doors split, his expression a frantic one. "Here I am! I know what you're going to say, but I'm onto something big, something crazy!" He spoke like a crazed fan girl gushing over a boy-band.

Aelita looked up from her lap and raised one eyebrow. "A new girlfriend?"

"No, a pirated copy of _Cyberbiker 7_!" Odd said ecstatically. "It's not even out in France yet and I can't miss out on a bargain like that."

Jeremy sighed and pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "You mean you nearly missed a critical meeting for a _video game_? What if there was an attack?!" he scowled. In just one day, Jeremy had already become stressed with the resurrection of XANA and his work with the supercomputer, making his temperment much shorter than it usually was.

"Well it wasn't, right?" the blond young man asked, shrugging his shoulders innocently. The others rolled their eyes.

"Okay, you know what? I'll drop it," Jeremy raised his hands. He returned to the chair ushered everyone in the room to come closer. "Anyway, I wanted you all here because I found something new. With Aelita's help, I managed to localize a signal from the Digital Sea. It's far off, but its nature is similar to a Replika."

Ulrich, Odd and Yumi looked at each other to gauge their reactions. They were all surprised to some extent, but after the assumptions made by the genius couple the other day, this did not come with any earth-shattering impact. "XANA?" Yumi asked curiously.

"More like the place of his rebirth," Jeremy corrected. "Well, I think, at least."

"We think that if we go there, we can get all these questions answered: how XANA was reactivated, by whom, or by what," Aelita explained.

"_And_ how to destroy him," Jeremy added. "By that, I mean for good."

Ulrich lightly coughed into his fist. "Exactly how are we supposed to get there? By swimming?"

"No, by submarine," Aelita giggled.

Odd beamed at them. "Sweet! You guys reprogrammed the _Skid_?" The Lyoko warriors all remembered that ego-crushing day when the _Skidbadnir_ had been destroyed by the Kolossus. It had not been used since then, leading them to believe that it was permanently out of commission.

"Well, while some people are goofing off, others are working," Jeremie said matter-of-factly. The rest of the group, including Odd, shared a joyful laugh.

Aelita made a firm stance and place her hands on her hips. "So, who's ready for an adventure today?" she asked, a spirited glint in her eyes.

"Definitely."

"Yes."

"Very."

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

The stillness of the woods located within Kadic's property line was disturbed by the manhole being opened from within and birthing the five young adults. First was Yumi, followed by Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and then Jeremy. They waited by the hole until the last Lyoko warrior climbed out, taking the time to admire the serene environment they were in. Birds were singing and squirrels were running about the canopy of the trees, gathering or fighting over food. They knew exploring the distant Replika so early in the day was not a wise decision to make. It was agreed that they would wait until the schoolday was behind them before virtualizing and boarding the Skid.

Everything seemed peaceful until they heard the sound of a stick snapping against the ground. Caught off guard by the close proximity of the noise and possibilities of its origin, the entire group whipped their heads around to see an individual standing there. He had a stocky build, stood taller than any of them, with scruffy black hair and clothes that included a black shirt, a brown jacket, denim jeans and rough cross-country sneakers. It was their former teammate and enemy, William Dunbar.

William carefully studied the sheepish faces of the gang, knowing exactly what they were up to. "So, you guys out here for a walk or just messing around?"

"Oh yes, I _love _strolling through the sewers," Odd began sarcastically, "because it reminds me of my vacation home in—" He stopped when he saw the serious and ruthless glare William was giving him.

"On Lyoko, right?" William guessed. Some of the warriors awkwardly avoided making eye contact, knowing that this was going to be a difficult conversation. "I saw and heard about all the freaky shit that happened the day before. Do you guys think I'm an idiot or something?" He began to look more and more frustrated by the second.

Yumi tried to speak first. "William—"

"XANA's back, isn't he?" William interrupted, figuratively hitting the nail right on the head. "Did you turn the supercomputer back on?"

"It's complicated," Jeremy said while rubbing the back of his skull and looking off into space.

William looked at him disbelievingly. "Complicated? It's not complicated; it's very simple. I'm not some bystander you can just lie to and then make forget about something that happened, do you understand? I. Can. Help. You. Didn't I prove that I could fight?

Ulrich stood up and took a step forward towards the older teen. "You mostly proved that you were hot-headed." he retorted harshly. "You're not reliable, and you played it solo without even thinking. XANA made you his bitch because of that."

"What happened to me could have happened to one of you at any point."

"Yeah but it didn't," Odd cut in. "You spent your time showing off and fell into a trap like some amateur. Then you tried to screw us all and kill—"

"I was never your enemy!" William snapped at them. The Lyoko warriors fell silent as a bird could be heard fluttering away in response to the outburst. William's shoulders rose and fell while his face had become a gentle shade of red. He turned around on his heel and stormed off, leaving behind a strong tension that kept the group from speaking for a few seconds.

They carried on and reached the school before the first bell, splitting up for their classes. Aelita and Jeremie would be in history class by now, while Odd and Ulrich were heading for earth sciences with Ms. Hertz. Yumi tagged along for the moment, her route to foreign cultures class being in the same direction. As they climbed the U-shaped staircase to the second floor of the building, Ulrich took notice of the pout his girlfriend made when her mind was stuck on a troublesome subject.

"Hey Yumi, is something bothering you?" Ulrich asked softly. He touched her shoulder to make her stop walking, which both he and Odd made sure to do themselves.

Yumi looked up and rapidly shook her head when she realized Ulrich had noticed her brooding. "Oh, I'm okay," she said with a faint blush. "It's just that...were we too harsh with William today?"

The question left Ulrich baffled. "What? _You're _the one asking that? The last time you were on Lyoko with William, he was XANA's puppet, and trying to kill us."

"I know," the Japanese girl said, "but XANA is back, and things have changed. We've all changed over the years, and so has William."

She glanced to her right, seeing Odd staring back at her with wide eyes. "Who are you and what closet have you left the real Yumi bound and gagged in?"

Yumi and Ulrich snickered at the joke. "You're right, it's stupid," she continued with a nod. "Come on, let's get to our classes." She trudged up the steps with the boys in tow, melding with the river of students as they too traversed to their own destinations. They did not think about William for the rest of the day, instead focusing on their work and the daring operation they would carry out later on.

_...XXX..._

As the final bell rang, the students of Kadic streamed out of the doors and across the campus' blacktop, heading for either the dormitory building or to their cars. Odd pushed his way through the immediate crowd and scanned the area for one specific person. He finally spotted the underclassman Xavier Gosselin by one of the benches, who noticed him as well.

Xavier stood up and walked in the direction of the cafeteria, signaling for Odd to follow him. He tailed him to the empty lunchroom and skulked behind the kitchen counter. Rosa was nowhere to be found, giving Xavier the chance to pull open the heavy door to the freezer, letting Odd come inside with him.

"Do you have it?" Odd asked excitedly.

Xavier reached into his bag and flashed a translucent-blue PlayStation 4 disk jacket. "Here it is. That'll be forty euros, please."

"Damn, you drive a hard bargain," Odd commented as he took out his wallet, "but it's worth it." He handed the younger student the money who in turn passed the case to him. "So this is _Cyberbiker 7_, right?"

"I swear on a stack of Bibles," Xavier said, raising his right hand to illustrate. "I only made a few of those, so consider yourself lucky."

"Awesome!" Odd opened the jacket to inspect his purchase while Xavier promptly exited the freezer set and off to wherever his business took him next. As expected of a pirated video game, it was a simple white disk with the game's title crudely written on its surface in black marker ink. He was practically hypnotized by the object he held, realizing far too late that the metal doorway—his only was out—was suddenly closed.

The lunch lady Rosa had returned from her break to set up the kitchen for the dinner she was expected to prepare for tonight. As she inspected all of the necessary cooking implements, she noticed that the freezer door had been left open. Instead of questioning exactly who may had left it like this, she absentmindedly shut and locked it, knowing that the food inside would spoil if she didn't. What she did not know, however, was that she had just sealed away her best breakfast, lunch, and dinner patron in the entire school. She carelessly walked away with no further regard for the matter.

* * *

**Factory**

"I don't know what tell you," Ulrich shrugged, "but he was with us one moment and then gone the next." That was the best excuse he and Yumi could give Jeremy when they realized that Odd did not accompany them to the factory. They honestly had no idea where he could be at the moment, though it probably had something to do with that video game he was so enthralled with earlier. Wherever he was, he wasn't answering any of their calls.

"And he seemed so excited about riding the Skid," Aelita added. She knew Odd would not sacrifice a trip to Lyoko just for a video game.

Jeremy, who was annoyed by the whole thing, shook his head with exhaustion. "Well it doesn't matter, because you guys are going with or without him."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Yumi questioned.

"The signal from the digital sea is very weak; no sense in losing it because of Odd. Now get going!" As reluctant as they were to do so, Ulrich and Yumi would choose diving without a full crew as opposed to being subjected to one of Jeremy's angrier moments. They turned back without hesitation and entered the elevator's threshold, waiting for their pink-haired captain to join them. When Aelita turned around to follow, her boyfriend grasped her left hand in his, stopping her. She looked over her shoulder to see him looking into her eyes with sincere concern. "Be careful," he cautioned.

Aelita smirked. "You know me," she teased, pulling away from him and went inside the elevator with her two bodyguards as the doors closed behind her. Jeremy smiled to himself as they left, seeing that the adventurous streak in her had not left her at all. Even with the imminent danger ahead, he would always try to have her back in situations like this.

_Anything for her, _he thought while returning to his chair and preparing the scanners. By now, the three warriors were already down in the room and would be waiting for him to set everything up. He brought up the three virtual ID cards and entered the codes that got fired up the three machines. "Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Aelita." He hit the enter key. "Virtualization."

* * *

**Sector Five**

Landing on the floor of the arena, Ulrich, Aelita and Yumi immediately ran through the break in the wall that lead to the core zone. They only stopped once they arrived at the lift, allowing the machine to carry them up to the _Skid's_ hangar. The three of them stared in awe at the large craft as it floated motionlessly between the supports that locked it firmly in place. It looked exactly like they remembered it to, complete with the four Navskids that clung to its main body.

"I forgot how beautiful it was," Yumi said softly.

"Yeah," Aelita breathed out as the lift came to a stop, "too bad Odd's not here." They walked across the platform surrounding the vehicle and stepped onto the teleportation pads. They were beamed into their respective stations, with Aelita ending up in the cockpit and Ulrich and Yumi in their individual Navskids. Guided by memory alone, the pinkette princess went through the step-by-step process for takeoff. "Opening interface," she announced after pressing the ignition button and watched the holographic screens that displayed the sub's internal systems and shield levels flicker on. "Do you read me, Navskids?"

"Loud and clear, Captain," Team Lyoko's other couple responded in unison.

"Awesome. Jeremy, are we ready to go?"

_"Aye-aye," _she heard her boyfriend say, _"releasing locks."_

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

_"Hello? Is anybody out there?"_ Odd desperately called through the freezer door, rapping at it with his fists. Being trapped as she was proved to be anything but pleasant. His ears and cheeks were now bright red, and his fingertips felt numb. _"Please, somebody help!"_

As he walked away with the cup of yogurt he had gotten from the lunchroom's refrigerated snack bar, William could hear the faint sounds of banging metal and a voice with a particularly high pitch. Curious, he decided to investigate after confirming no one else was around. It sounded like somebody was on the other side of the freezer door. Unsure of what was the most appropriate thing to say first, William gently knocked on the metal door with his free hand and said, "Hello?"

_"William?! William, is that you?!"_

He recognized the voice almost immediately. "Odd?"

_"Yeah it's me, Odd! You've got to get me out; it's cold in here!"_

William took his sweet time to fully grasp the situation: Odd Della Robbia, one of the people treating him like a stranger, was locked in the kitchen freezer and needed rescuing. A snicker was forced out of the older boy's nose and accompanied with a controlled yet hysterical laughter that only served to further chip away at the skinny blonde boy's pride. Once William calmed down, his demeanor took on a dramatic shift from humor to righteous power. "So how does it feel to be trapped like...what was it you said earlier…oh yeah, an _amateur_?"

_"Oh, haha, I'm _dying_ of laughter,"_ Odd groaned sarcastically. He remembered how he called William an amateur to his face earlier and knew he may have had something like this coming. But now was not the time to be put in his place, especially when he was needed on Lyoko. And he was trapped in a freezer for goodness sake! _"I'm sorry about that amateur crack earlier. Can you please bury the hatchet and find Jim or Rosa? They have the keys. It's urgent; the others need me somewhere."_

"XANA's attacking?"

_"Not really,"_ Odd said, _"but it's still important."_

A sly grin unexpectedly appeared on William's face. "Okay, I'll see what I can do." He turned around and headed for the main doors, taking one last satisfactory spoonful of his yogurt before tossing the half-full cup into the garbage. He wasn't going to send for help, at least not yet. Rather, he was going straight to the factory in Odd's stead to help the Lyoko warriors in whatever mess they were probably getting themselves into.

_Whether they like it or not, I'm going prove myself useful._

* * *

**Digital Sea**

The gateway of Lyoko's ventral opening unfolded like thin flower pedals, granting the _Skidbladnir_ access to the Digital Sea. Through the still and endless blue liquid was the world network's clustered databases, shaped like a massive upside-down city. Aelita brought the _Skid's_ main body and stabilizing fins into horizontal positions. The three crew members had the time to take in their surroundings, remembering how awe-inspiring a sight such as this.

"It hasn't changed much, has it?" Ulrich voiced. Having been the latest team member to be virtualized in two years, he had noticed how his Lyoko form had altered since the last time he was here. He was still a samurai with twin katanas and a gold and brown bodysuit, though the color pattern had been moved around in a few places. A scouter with a translucent red lens rested over his left eye. Apparently this was supposed to aid in his lightning-fast special attacks.

"Yeah, it feels so weird to be back here again," Yumi said as she looked around through the cockpit of her Navskid.

_"Aelita, head to coordinates one-seventy and find a hub," _Jeremy ordered.

Aelita nodded. "Engaging turbo jets and auxiliary engines." She pressed a button on the controls and gripped the joysticks as the sub began cruising forward through the watery abyss. They maintained a stable speed for several minutes, lazily avoiding several of the databases that displayed moving data and codes along their sides.

They eventually reached a hub. In the center was the swirling vortex that would swallow the _Skidbladnir_ whole and deposit it closer to their destination. Aelita guided the _Skid_ through the long glowing pipes that supported the hub's disk-shaped body. Descending into the portal, the three warriors watched with amazement as they were sucked into a long and twisting wormhole, much like the one they saw when they were virtualized.

Seconds later, the _Skid_ was propelled out into a distant part of the network, which, contrary to what they expected, looked no different from where they had entered the hub system. "Jeremy, we're here," Aelita reported, "but I can't see anything. Are you sure this is the right place?"

* * *

**Factory**

"The signal is weak, but it's there. Just keep your eyes peeled and you'll find something," Jeremy insisted. He knew they would not likely spot this Replika immediately, but he was certain they would stumble upon it any minute. Behind him came the sound of the elevator doors opening and sneakers scuffing against the floor. He had already prepared what to say when this finally came. "Odd, it's easy to forgive people for doing things that are in their nature. The things you do sometimes, though, can be very strenuous on our relationship as a group. Lucky for you, Aelita encourages me to be more understanding, so all I can say is that I'm...disappointed."

"Wow, that had to be the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Jeremy."

Jeremy's blood ran cold when he did not recognize the voice as Odd's. He whipped his head around so fast he hurt his neck, nearly jumping out of his chair when his eyes registered the person standing behind him to see William. His fears were replaced with confusion and exhaustion. "William, how did you get in here?"

"It's not like I forgot how to use the hidden keypad since you showed me," William answered smugly, crossing his arms over his chest.

The blond teen sighed. "Can we talk about this some other time? We're in the middle–"

"Of a mission," William forcefully interrupted, "I can see that. I just dropped in to tell you that Odd couldn't come: he had a...let's say a minor setback. He said it was cool if I filled in for him."

_"Jeremy, we've found something," _Aelita announced suddenly.

His attention refocused on the task at hand, Jeremy turned back to the monitor and adjusted his earpiece. "What does it look like?" he asked quizzically.

* * *

**Digital Sea**

"It's a giant sphere like Lyoko," Aelita analyzed, "but it looks evil: it has spikes all around it like some kind of cortex." Her description of the monstrous thing was rather accurate. Like Lyoko, this Replika was a sphere made up of thousands upon thousands of cubes, but what stood out from Lyoko was the presence of the thin rectangular blocks that surrounded it. They jutted out from the sphere's otherwise smooth surface in an even pattern, resembling the protective spines of some ungodly seed or fruit.

The pinkette elf angled the nose of the Skid to descend deeper into the blackness of the Digital Sea. At the bottom of the Replika was the familiar curved passageway that would lead into the world housed within. She then flipped the switch that made the submersible's fins and body fold perpendicularly and it to a full stop before the closed gate. Strangely, it did not bear the eye of XANA on it. "We've found a portal, but it's locked."

_"Don't worry; if this is anything like Lyoko, decrypting it shouldn't be that hard." _From the tone in his voice, Aelita could tell that Jeremy was probably speaking to someone else besides her. Thinking it would sound silly to ask out loud, she remained silent and waited for the portal to be decrypted and opened. Within ten seconds, the talons of the opening's rim drew back and presented the bright white portal to the Skid as if to invite it inside. The sub drifted into the mouth of the passageway and immediately rose out of the sea's surface afterwards.

The environment was far more detailed than expected in terms of scenery. The "sky" was colored like a late afternoon, with fluffy clouds and a shining sun, elements that did not exist in Lyoko. Even stranger was the single immense sector that floated in midair just ahead of them.

It was shaped vaguely like a disk and made from blue-green blocks of various shapes and sizes. Unlike those found in Sector Five, these modules did not appear to be solid, but had black strips with glowing circuitry on their sides and bytes of data running through them. It slowly rotated around it central axis like some flattened, mechanical planet.

"Jeremy, are you seeing this?" Aelita asked softly after sending her boyfriend a first-person visual of what she herself was looking at.

_"I am,"_ he replied calmly._ "So this is how XANA survived. You'll have to explore this 'Cortex' more thoroughly."_

"Coming up alongside." Aelita parked the _Skidbladnir_ to the very edge of the sector. Jeremy and Aelita knew that the Skid was too valuable to risk damaging in a place they knew nothing about. The chances of traps or security systems being hidden in the Cortex were high, and losing the craft could leave them stranded.

"Disembarking." With the simple push of a button, the avatars of Yumi, Aelita and Ulrich seemed to fade from existence in a manner akin to images on a faulty television screen. They reappeared outside of the sub, standing alongside each other on the surface. In front of them appeared the Overbike and Overwing vehicles, ready for use. Jeremy had sent them before he began launching a super-scan of the Replika.

Ulrich walked over to his signature transport, while Yumi climbed aboard her own. "Saddle up, Princess," he motioned for Aelita, flashing a smile. She hopped onto the tandem seat and held on as the two vehicles drove off together.

_...XXX..._

Navigating the Cortex was not so different from taking a drive through the city, only there were no cars or pedestrians to watch out for and no roads to stay on. The Cortex itself was in fact much like a city, its raised modules similar to buildings and the spaces between them being the streets. Jeremy had found the quickest route to the sector's center, which was configured into a mostly straight pathway through towering blocks and a few gaps here or there. Yumi and Ulrich were enjoying the thrill of racing along the long straightaway, silently goading each other to keep up. Aelita was well aware of the teasing her friends exchanged, tightening her grip around Ulrich's waist on the Overbike for fear of some disastrous crash that often resulted from hazardous drag-races such as this.

_"Guys, something's happening!"_ Jeremy warned.

As the vehicles rounded a huge corner, the environment ahead of them suddenly began to change. The path broke apart into wide blocks and tall monoliths that rose, sank, and shifted to create walls and gaps that were certainly meant to prevent the Lyoko warriors from continuing on. With his fast reflexes, Ulrich clenched the hand brakes of the Overbike and stopped it right at the edge of a newly-formed gap with an uninterrupted view of the Digital Sea below. He and Aelita watched as Yumi zoomed ahead of them on her floating Overwing.

"Yumi, watch out!" Ulrich cried to her. Heeding her soul mate's warning, Yumi looked back in front of her to belatedly realize that a huge block even larger than the school dormitory was now in her direct path. Her reaction came to slow as she collided head on into the solid wall, disappearing with her ride in an explosion of confetti-like pixels.

"Yumi!" Aelita gasped, naturally extending her hand out in concern.

_"What the hell just happened?"_

"I don't know," Ulrich said. "Everything just started moving. I stopped, but Yumi got devirtualized."

_"The Cortex must change like Sector Five used to. Wait a minute...oh no,"_ Jeremy started grimly, _"Yumi's not showing up in the scanner!"_

_"What?!"_ Panic began to overtake Ulrich. Yumi had "died" once before after falling into the Digital Sea, being resurrected shortly afterwards through luck and sacrifice. Did that mean the same thing had happened again now? Aelita, who was equally worried, was nevertheless able to remain calm and listen carefully to the soothing voice of her boyfriend.

_"It means she's trapped in a kind of virtual limbo,"_ Jeremy explained. _"The Cortex is somehow interfering with her foreign virtual data. Maybe it's design isn't compatible with virtualized material from Lyoko, or—"_

"Okay, enough with that science gibberish!" Ulrich snapped. "Is Yumi alive or not?!"

Jeremy anxiously replied with, _"I can't give you a definitive answer right now, Ulrich! This problem isn't black and white. But yes, Yumi is technically dead, yet not in the traditional sense. I just have to recover her digital signal and she'll be fine. What you and Aelita have to focus on right now is getting to the core of the Cortex, is that clear?"_

Before Ulrich could retort or make some hurtful proclamation, Aelita placed a hand over his shoulder. "He's right; we have to keep going," she sated with an even tone of voice. Ulrich did not look convinced. "Jeremy's the only one who can help Yumi right now. We have a mission to complete."

The young German samurai felt powerless to save his girlfriend or, for that matter, continue arguing, knowing that Aelita was right. With a heavy heart, he reluctantly revved the handle bars and steered the Overbike around in a wide arch. They went back the way they came for a moment before finding a route to use as a detour to their destination.

The pair eventually ended up traveling over a long "bridge" that would take them to the core. Unfortunately, the path they took experienced a serious obstacle as a block sank to the bottom of the sector, creating another gap to fall through. Ulrich did not have time to process this, and sent the Overbike over the edge and into empty space. Ulrich and Aelita screamed as they diverged from the vehicle and plummeted.

Aelita swept her hand over her star bracelet, spreading her wings and dramatically slowing her decent like a skydiver deploying their parachute. She drew her feathery appendages inward and dove after the falling Ulrich who had nothing to fly with. They reached out for each other's hands as the distance between them closed, yet the pull of gravity won the battle. Ulrich impacted against the cruel, hard surface below, vanishing in a flurry of pixels that soon dissipated. Aelita herself had to spread her wings out to stop in midair and avoid crashing head-first into the floor of the sector.

* * *

**Factory**

"Oh crap, Ulrich's stuck too!" Jeremie moaned, typing at the keyboard furiously. Finding and restoring Yumi's virtual data was difficult enough, but now he had to reassemble _two_ human beings lost on the network. Time was something he needed but sorely lacked, especially now since Aelita was alone in a hazardous environment without an escort. He slammed a fist against the chair's armrest in impotent frustration, unable to juggle two important problems at once. "Dammit! What do we do?"

William had been standing next to Jeremy for a while now, and had payed close attention to everything that had happened. He was unsure as to what exactly had happened to Yumi and Ulrich in the sophisticated language of computers that Jeremy had been talking about, but it took no genius to understand that they were in trouble, as was Aelita. It was only until after he had gotten into the elevator that he realized this may be his chance to redeem himself; he had turned around to head for the scanners on instinct.

"William, where are you going?" Jeremy asked sharply, noticing his actions.

"Just tell me how to get to the Cortex," the older boy said dourly. "Besides you need me this time, right?"

Jeremy felt torn. He did not want William to get involved further, though there was the conflicting fact that his girlfriend was in a fix and needed backup. William had probably decided to step in for his own gain, but something about the way he was volunteering to help Aelita without asking to do so earlier was making the blond genius think about just how indispensable William Dunbar was at the moment.

Sighing in defeat, Jeremy concluded that he would have to argue later. "I'll have to send you there directly. The Skid will act as a relay for you."

William nodded with acknowledgement as the elevator doors slid shut. Jeremy turned back to the keyboard to set up one of the scanners. Once William was in position, he typed the keystrokes needed to initiate the process. "Scanner, William. Virtualization."

* * *

**Cortex**

The transfer had been successful. William noticed the _Skidbladnir_ behind him after landing on the greenish platform over which it was parked. He was mildly impressed by the scenic view he had, looking over the horizon of the seemingly endless stretch of modules and connecting hubs of the Cortex.

Flashbacks of his enslavement by XANA began to appear in his head. They were memories of how his mind and soul were powerless as XANA worked his body like a puppet. Shuddering, he let his eyes trail down on himself, preparing for the worst.

His body suit was charcoal-black with a few bright orange stripes on his arms and legs, not the shimmering alabaster that he had hoped for. His skin was so pale it appeared to be gray like the hide of a rhinoceros. Though appalled, he sighed with relief to find the eye of XANA missing from his chest, and that the only sinister element of his virtual persona was the spiked gauntlet on his left forearm.

_"William, are you okay? Don't waste time,"_ Jeremy's voice entered William's head, grabbing his full attention._ "Aelita is directly west of your position; I'll send you the Overboard to get there"_

"Actually, that won't be necessary," William dismissed curtly. "I think I have something better." He held up his right hand and as black smoke began to appear around the appendage. "Looks like I got a little souvenir from XANA." With one mental command, his entire body evaporated into a cloud of smoke that slithered rapidly through the air to its destination like a gaseous serpent.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Odd was now feeling very cold. He had no idea how long he had been in the freezer for, but knew that William had not returned with help. The young teen's hair gel was nearly frozen solid by now, and his entire body was shivering like an autumn leaf. The feeling in his face and hands were nonexistent, and his nose was beginning to run. Was anyone coming for him? Were his friends even looking for him?

As he lightly banged his head against the thick door he was leaning back into, it swung open and send him falling back onto the floor. Warm air hit his skin, bringing him back to his senses in time to find a puzzled Jim standing over him. Odd rolled over and got to his feet, presenting the man with a sheepish grin.

"Della Robbia," Jim began, staring him down with a suspicious look, "were you the one making all that noise? What are you doing in the freezer?"

"What time is it?" Odd questioned, still confused.

"17:31."

"Well, William sure took his time to tell you."

Jim cocked a bushy eyebrow. "William? You mean William _Dunbar_? He didn't come to me for anything today," he explained.

"Well then how did..." Odd's eyes practically bugged out of his head. It wasn't until now that he put two pieces together to understand that he had been abandoned by William the minute he had finished talking to him. He also guessed that he ditched him to the factory in his place to weasel his way onto Lyoko in his place. A fire suddenly ignited in Odd's belly, solely directed at William. "Oh, I don't believe it!" He bolted past Jim and out the kitchen, heading for the cafeteria's doorway.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Jim yelled after him, receiving no response. "Alright then, Della Robbia, pick a number: two, four, six, eight?"

"Ten!"

"Okay, ten hours of detention it is."

* * *

**Cortex**

Having no vehicle at her disposal, Aelita opted to fly to the core on her own. She had traveled a kilometer in only five minutes, safe from the sector's shifting terrain that had so easily gotten the better of her friends. At last, the core was in reach after seeing it from afar for most of the journey.

The core externally resembled a miniature Replika, comprised of thousands of cubes brought together to form a huge sphere with a diameter nearly the width of a city block. The sphere itself appeared to be floating in the middle of a huge hole cut into the sector's surface that acted like a moat, the only contact being a bridge that was connected to the core's equatorial region. At this point of connection was what looked like a large portal, suggesting that this was merely a shell for the real core inside.

She glided downward and alighted at the far end of the bridge. From this distance, Aelita could see that the portal door was much like the arperture of a giant camera shutter, with six blade-like sections that overlapped one another. Before she could consider walking up to it, the virtual outline of a Krab took form and landed on the metallic floor on the other side. Aelita reacted quickly to the approaching monster, producing a pink ball of energy in her right hand to destroy it with. This was all she needed to confirm that XANA was indeed here in the Cortex and deploying countermeasures.

She hurled the energy ball at the Krab as the distance between them shrank. The tall crustacean simply squatted, letting the incoming projectile sail over its carapace and colliding with the sphere behind it. I returned fire with three shots, which Aelita dodged by quickly back-flipping and taking to the air once again. Avoiding more laser bolts, she glided over her attacker and clung to the surface of the core, hiding in an effort to buy herself time find a way inside the structure. The Krab made no hesitation to follow, using its powerful limbs to climb along the uneven terrain of the sphere, balanced as though it were walking over flat earth.

Aelita became airborne once more, but not for long. A laser bolt tore through one of her wings and struck her back, sending a jolt of momentary pain through her body and robbing her of several life points. She yelled as she was overtaken by gravity, falling flat on her face in front of the core's sealed entrance. Though dazed, she was very thankful that broken bones and damaged organs were not issues when virtualized.

_"Aelita, get the hell out of there!" _she heard Jeremy shout. As she recovered, her body was overtaken y a shadow, belonging to the Krab that now loomed over her. It raised a leg, poised to impale her in one jab that would guarantee instantaneous devirtualization. Aelita had time to roll out of the way of the appendage as its stroke fell, meeting only the floor of the bridge. The Krab repeated the same move, only now with its left front leg; the pink-haired princess narrowly avoided the attack, getting to her feet as fast as she could. But now she stood face-to-face with the creature as it charged its laser weapon to gun down the helpless Lyoko warrior.

For a moment, Aelita feared for her life. Considering what had happened to Ulrich and Yumi, there was no logical reason to doubt that her digital signature would not be lost in the Cortex's network. Jeremy could only do so much, and recovering three people may have been beyond his capacity. She would, in a sense, be dead. By some unbelievable stroke of luck, the Krab was distracted be a cloud of black smoke before it could fire. This smoke transformed into the eerily familiar avatar of William, who alighted on the monster's carapace, stabbing it through the eye of XANA with his massive Zweihänder sword. After it exploded, William stood there with a confident smirk, before turning around to see Aelita with a nervous look on her face and her throwing arm cocked back, an energy ball in hand. Her response to his presence was instinctual, given the negative history they shared on Lyoko as enemies.

"Hey, calm down," William said as he held up his free hand while his weapon vanished from the other in a puff of smoke, "it's just me."

The fact that he had disarmed himself was not lost on Aelita, leaving her the only one in the position to attack. She quickly broke her stance and made the energy ball disappear from her hand. "Sorry," she said with a hint of embarrassment in her voice, "just a force of habit."

William shrugged. "Whatever. Let's go." He motioned towards the entrance to the core, letting Aelita take the lead. She smiled at the gesture, walking across the length of the bridge with him in tow.

* * *

**Factory**

Jeremy was so heavily engrossed with the mission that he ignored the elevator doors sliding open. At this point he had been expecting Odd to make his timely arrival soon and did not flinch when the irate Italian boy trudged into the room with his "I'm-crazy-pissed-right-now" look.

"Where is he?!" he seethed. "Where is that sneaky bastard?! If I find him, and I will, I'll—!"

"Odd, please, save it for another time. William is already in the Cortex helping Aelita and they need backup."

Odd looked both confused and forlorn. "You mean he went in place of me? Wait, what's the Cortex?"

"Never mind, just hurry!" Jeremy turned around and frantically commanded. "I'll explain it all later, but I can tell you that right now Ulrich and Yumi are in danger!"

"Oh, yeah? Well so is William."

* * *

**Cortex**

For the life of her, Aelita could not push hard enough to make the core's entryway even budge. Despite her grades in gym, she was no athlete, lacking the stamina and physical strength of her friends like Ulrich and Yumi. Either way, the imposing doorway may as well have been made from solid rock, unmoving and virtually impenetrable. William, who stood by her, decided to act after watching her struggle long enough.

"Let me do it," he offered, motioning for her to step back. Once Aelita had backed up, William summoned his Zweihänder in both of his hands, posing like a baseball player up at bat. He brought the sword over his head and swung with tremendous force, making the blade forcefully impact against the door. Instead of piercing the or denting it, the attack created only a few sparks and some damage to William's ego.

Aelita sighed. "I guess it doesn't work that way either." Following her statement was a series of powerful vibrations from inside the core, which reverberated through the bridge and temporarily threw the two warriors off balance. Once they picked themselves up off the ground, the pair watched the shutter-like doorway open up like the maw of some immense alien creature.

"Well, looks like it's straight in from here," mused Aelita.

Just then, several red laser bolt sailed over their heads, catching them off guard. William and Aelita looked back to see two more Krabs on the far end of the bridge, shooting at them as they approached. Aelita was ready to fight again, but found herself being yanked back by William and thrown into the threshold of the core's opening. "Go on! Don't worry about me! I've got these assbags!"

With his huge weapon ready, William sprinted in a headlong charge towards the Krabs, deflecting several of the well-aimed shots fired at him. As he came within five meters from the monsters, he sank to his knees and slid underneath one of the lofty constructs. William timed it right and jumped high over the other Krab and landed on its carapace. He tried to keep his balance as the crustacean attempted to dislodge him, tilting its body at all angles like a wooden board floating on open water. The other Krab, with XANA's directive, seized the chance to shoot the troublesome human off of its distracted comrade.

Despite getting hit by a charged laser and losing twenty life points as a result, William was not about to let this hinder him. As he fell from the monster, he rolled and twisted his body to ensure his feet made contact with the floor first, then transformed into a cloud of black smoke again. The Krabs trailed their target as it drifted away and began flying up to the top of a nearby module of the Cortex.

He reverted back to his human form and peered over the edge of the elevated structure. The Krabs were scaling the vertical face of the module, heading straight for him. William could admit he mostly relied on brute force to win a fight, but in this particular engagement, he would have to play the strategist with no one else around to do that for him. Before he could decide on whether or not to ask for Jeremy's help or to cook up his own plan, the same annoyingly familiar voice from before assaulted his eardrums.

"WILLIAM!" The owner of the voice was none other than Odd, riding towards William on his Overboard, looking quite pissed at his aforementioned classmate. "You shithead, I'll kill you!" he proclaimed with a snarl, pouncing off his vehicle and straight at the young man he was directing his anger at, claws bared.

William was not as good a fighter as Ulrich, but his hand-eye coordination was pretty decent. Odd's movements were kind of predictable, even for someone with a feline persona for an avatar. He ducked, letting Odd's pounce become a humiliating dive into the floor. William smirked. "Hello, _amateur_. I guess Jim finally let you out, didn't he?"

The irked Odd pushed his torso up and aimed a laser arrow gauntlet at the Doppelsöldner, who quickly retaliated with a combat-ready stance to imply that he would run Odd through if necessary. The two of them may have actually started fighting if Jeremy had not intervened.

_"Would you two knock it off?" _he asked with a tone that most people reserved for bickering children. _"If you have to settle something between yourselves, settle it later. There are more serious problems right now."_

Jeremy's logic was as sound as his timing was perfect. The Krabs had just reached the top of the huge module, shooting at the two humans. William retrained his focus on the monsters and blocked several well-place laser bolts in the nick of time. Odd lay prone under the enemy fire before getting up into a crouching position. In that moment, they knew what they had to do, even as Odd flashed his new partner a 'you're-not-off-the-hook-yet' kind of look.

_...XXX..._

When William had shoved Aelita inside the entrance to the sphere, the core room did not immediately meet her expectations. Instead of a large chamber analogous to that of Lyoko's core, she found herself standing on a long bridge that ended in the middle of a dark sea of empty space. Her eyes could not penetrate the gloom, the only source of light coming from the open doorway behind her. She glanced back to see William charging the Krabs before jogging to the end of the walkway. She came to stop on top of a hexagonal pad with glowing white edges that seemed to intensify after her feet made contact. As predicted, her avatar was then beamed into an apparently trans-dimensional room with a layout that the pinkette princess had been anticipating upon entry.

The core room was enormous and physically spherical in shape, its walls studded with pyramid-shaped divots. Sprouting from both of the room's geometric poles were thick crystalline spires that nearly touched each other, a luminous ball of blue energy floating between them. As for anything that could be remotely considered a floor, there were multiple C-shaped platforms of mechanical origin that floated around the spires at varying elevations. Aelita stood on one of the higher ones, over an identical teleportation pad from before.

She sent Jeremy a data stream of her first-person perspective so he could see and document everything her eyes captured. As he had instructed her to do so, Aelita scanned the room for anything that could be used to relay information to the supercomputer. She spotted what resembled a computer interface one may expect to find at an airport or a bowling alley. It seemed like a good assumption to make. "I see can see an interface from here, Jeremy," she reported. Activating her wings, she glided across the core room and gracefully alighted on the lower platform like the angel she signified. The interface was levitating at waist height, mimicking a half-lidded eye with a distinct almond shape and a circular screen in its center like an eyeball.

_"Okay, let's link up and save Yumi and Ulrich," _Jeremy said.

Aelita brought her right hand out and splayed it over the screen for less than a second. In the absence of visible keys, the interface must have been touch-activated. Before Aelita appeared a translucent green digital graphic roughly the size of a movie theater screen. It portrayed streams of binary code and physical equations in rapidly flashing images. Her eyes struggled to sear at least some of the pictures into her brain; laboratories, group photos of scientists, warehouses and buildings she did not recognize. She was beginning to feel overwhelmed by all of it.

"Jeremy," she began numbly, "something really weird is happening."

_"I know, I can see it too. But don't waste time; you have to find Yumi and Ulrich's digital signals," _her boyfriend stressed.

_Right, right. Focus, Aelita. _Pulling her eyes away from the huge display, Aelita manipulated the screen of the interface again.

_...XXX..._

Balancing on his Overboard and performing a banking turn, Odd unleashed a barrage of laser arrows into one of the Krabs, hitting it in every vulnerable spot and destroying it. Simultaneously, the second Krab had the misfortune of William shifting from his smoky from in midair and cleaving it in two with his Zweihänder. "Game over," he said triumphantly.

Odd was still angry with William for abandoning him earlier, and naturally took the chance to exact his vengeance yet again. He skimmed the top of the module with the Overboard, knocking William off his feet and onto an adjacent, slightly lower one. The sudden attack left William somewhat disoriented andon his back in a daze whilst Odd stepped off of his board. "Now we can settle the score." The edge in his voice was keenly vindictive.

William casually stood back up, raising one hand pleadingly and keeping the other on the hilt of his sword. "Calm down, okay?"

"Not a chance!" Odd shook his head in defiance, raising both laser arrow gauntlets and training them on William. "I still have to kick your ass!"

"Don't make me fight you, Odd."

"Bring it on!" Before any physical harm could be exchanged between either of them, a felt tremor and distant groaning noise was enough to pique both their interests. "What the hell?"

William looked back to look at the core, his ears telling him that the sound and vibrations were originating from that particular direction. He motioned for Odd to follow him, walking to the edge of the module and concentrating with his eyes. When Odd followed, he could see what William was paying attention to. The huge circular entrance of the core room appeared to be growing teeth along its rim, which was perplexing until William's brain made sense of it: the core was shutting itself, with Aelita still in it!

"That's not good." William transformed into smoke and flew down to the entrance, while Odd retrieved his Overboard and followed. Stopping in front of the threshold, they saw the spaces between the shutters growing thinner with each passing second, and if Aelita couldn't leave just yet, they needed to do something that would buy her time. William and Odd began pushing against the moving parts, following basic human logic that trying to hold the door back would keep it open. This proved futile, as whatever force moving the shutters was many times stronger than the combined efforts of the two boys.

"Come on, Aelita! Step on it!" Odd grunted loudly.

_...XXX..._

Inside the dimension of the core room, Aelita could somehow feel the vibrations of the door closing. Instead of wondering how that was possible in a place that she had teleported to, she focused on finishing the process needed to retrieve the digital signatures of her missing friends. Using her skills as a hacker and Creativity power, she rode along the virtual vectors of the Cortex's raw data systems to single out the distinct virtual makeup of Yumi and Ulrich. She cross-referenced roughly a billion bytes of data every half of a second until each bit that they were comprised of had been rounded up and reassembled correctly. As soon as she had them sent off to the scanners, she took her hand off the console and stepped back. "There you have it, Jeremy; I'm finished. Yumi and Ulrich should be materializing any minute."

_"Great job, now get out of there quickly," _Jeremy ordered._ "The door is closing and I have no way of knowing if I can bring you back to Earth from the core."_

Aelita spread her wings again and prepare to fly up to the platform with the teleportation pad. Before doing so, she glanced back at the flashing images on the huge digital screen, feeling rather curious about it. Even with her great intellect, Aelita could not randomly guess what significance these images of research labs and experiments held in respect for this Replika. XANA had to have been responsible for its creation, right?

Then came one picture that lasted several seconds longer than the rest, or at least that was how Aelita perceived it. What she saw appeared to be part of a photograph with only one individual it seemed to be focusing on: a middle-aged man in a white lab coat with a heavy beard, glasses, and a thick head of graying hair. She recognized him immediately, though a small part of her did not want to believe her eyes. Whatever the reason, she was looking at her father, the late Waldo Schaeffer, AKA Franz Hopper.

_Daddy? _Aelita wanted to stand there and think why a picture of her father of all people would be in the Cortex, until Jeremy began yelling at her.

_"Aelita, get the hell out of there now!"_

_...XXX..._

"This had better work," William thought out loud. He raised the Zweihänder up over his head and brought it down fast, jamming the blade into the thin solace between the floor and one of the shutters. The gaps between them were now only narrow enough for a person of a light build to squeeze through. The sword buckled from the strain as it was deleted, crushing the theory that anything could be done to stop the doorway from sealing.

Before William or Odd could curse their misfortune and incompetence, their hopes were restored when a pink blur zipped out through the thinning space and landed delicately behind them. They turned around to find Aelita giving them a confident smirk, allowing them to shake their heads and express their relief. They could not have looked any happier to see her.

"I must say, Princess," Odd said, putting his hands on his hips and smiling, "this sure is a nice place you found for us."

* * *

**Factory**

All Yumi and Ulrich could remember was being devirtualized as they groggily stumbled out of the scanners. Feeling light-headed, they found staying on their feet to be quite tiring. Yumi carefully sat down by her scanner while Ulrich moved across the room to join her. He reached for one of her hands and clasped it with his own and rested his head against hers.

"What just happened?" Yumi had to ask. She felt as though she needed to lay down for a while and catch her breath.

Equally breathless, Ulrich shook his head. "No idea. We'll have to ask Jeremy."

_"Don't worry, you two,"_ the voice of their bespectacled friend crackled through the intercom, _"I'll explain everything in a second. But first, I think I can send some help for both of you."_

Once Jeremy had materialized William, Aelita and Odd, they graciously went straight to helping the disoriented pair to their feet and guiding them to elevator. They met Jeremy in the lab, who, after a few minutes of explanation, addressed what they had discovered in this new virtual world they had named the Cortex.

Aelita sat at the raised lip in the center of the rotunda next to Jeremy whole the rest of the Lyoko warriors and William were gathered around them. Ulrich and Yumi had recovered by now and were able to function without assistance. Now past their own predicament, they shared more interest in why a picture of Franz Hopper would be in the Replika of all places. It was simply too significant for their pink-haired friend to wave off as coincidence. They all knew it troubled her, as she looked as though she had seen a ghost.

"Are you absolutely sure it was your father?" Jeremy asked Aelita gently. He placed his hand on her shoulder for encouragement.

"I know it was him," she replied, "but I still don't understand it. How could he have anything to do with the Cortex?"

Jeremy made an optimistic shrug. "Probably nothing, but we can't be sure."

William awkwardly cleared his throat to get some attention. "This is great and all, but I'm kind of tired of beating around the bush: what are you guys going to do about me? Am I back on the team or what?"

The gang exchanged glances before letting Jeremy take the floor again. "Well, you did pull a fast one on Odd to get here."

"Yeah!" the skinny blonde quickly added.

"But," Jeremy resumed, "it's true that if you hadn't have showed up like you did and gone to Lyoko, things could have been much worse." In the background, Ulrich made an uncharacteristic nod in agreement, surprising even Yumi. "We also found XANA's lair, so...in short, we'll give it some thought."

Odd looked baffled. "_What?!_ I was left for _dead_ in a freezer and you're saying he _might _join our team?!" He pointed at Yumi. "I guess you'll be hooking up with him now, right?!" The Japanese girl smirked and shook her head.

"A simple 'thank you' will suffice," William replied, grinning smugly.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Jim slapped a circular sign with an adhesive underside to the face of the freezer door. It was red in color with bold white print that read "STAFF ONLY". He made sure it was as clear as the new rule he was about set for the students. Several of them had been gathered so that they may spread the message to their peers.

"Okay now," he started, "since some of us think we can play hide and seek in the freezer, the cafeteria will now be off-limits to students except during meals. And in case none of you take this seriously, for the next few days, anyone caught waltzing in here will get ten hours of detention!"

As with many of his personal talents, Odd prided himself in his ability to read lips. He could not physically hear a word Jim was saying through the cafeteria's windows, but his sharp eyes were able to discern them based on the movements of his mouth and tongue. Knowing that William was passing by, this would be as good as any chance for retribution.

Upon spotting him, Odd waved his arm for attention and ushered him over with a smile. William approached with a guilty face and low head like he was about to willingly accept the punishment coming his way. "Okay," he sighed, "what shall it be? Glove? Sword? Dueling pistol?"

"That won't be necessary, William; another fight wouldn't solve anything." Odd couldn't resist grinning. "We should just let bygones be bygones from here. To prove that, I came to put in a good word for you from Yumi. She's in the cafeteria right now, and wants to tell and maybe show you something, if you catch my drift."

William's eyes practically lit up after hearing this. "For real?" he asked, letting Odd nod his head. He almost rushed through the doors past Sissi and several exiting students before turning around one last time. "No hard feelings, right?"

"None at all, pal."

"Awesome." William extended his hands and shook Odd's, then excitedly entered the lunchroom. Odd looked back to the window and watched the older teen run into Jim, who began yelling at him. He could see the phrase "ten hours of detention" on the supervisor's lips, sealing William's fate for the remainder of the day.

Odd wheeled around and strutted confidently across the courtyard, looking happier than anyone else around him. _Well I got my revenge, _he thought, _and I'll be able to play _Cyberbiker 7_ tonight._

_...XXX..._

Aelita lay awake in her bed, staring up at the ceiling in at trance. Her mind was a maelstrom of mixed thoughts and emotions that refused to let her sleep. The discoveries made in the Cortex may have answered a few questions, but raised entirely new ones. They had learned that XANA had survived using a Replika that was previously unknown to the Lyoko warriors. What they didn't know was where this new virtual world came from or who created it, and why there was an image of Franz Hopper in its data banks. Like a voracious rodent, the questions and lack of information was slowly gnawing away at her.

The room's door suddenly opened, startling Aelita. She would have shrieked had her eyes and brain not quickly identified the intruder as he stood in the open doorway. Jeremy was dressed in his light-blue pajamas and a pair of white socks. His glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. "Hey there," he greeted, flashing a small yet warm smile.

Realizing that she was still laying down, Aelita sat up and crossed her legs, the comforter falling to her lap. "Um...hi. What are you doing here?"

"I came to check on you," the blonde genius answered. "May I come in?" Aelita made a small nod and patted the bedding in front of her, indicating to where her boyfriend could make himself comfortable. Jeremy quietly shut the door behind him as he stepped inside the dorm room and took a seat on the bed next to her. "So, what's on your mind?"

Aelita was not entirely sure what to say in response. She was still hung up on the fact that Jeremy had the guts to sneak out from his room to see her in the middle of the night. Last she had checked, if was the other way around, where she would come to see _him_. Jeremy was usually respectful of the rule against students going to the dorm of the opposite gender after curfew. If they were caught and accused of trying to have intimate sexual relations on school grounds, they were as good as expelled. The suspicious side of Aelita's womanly instincts told her that men only took these risks for a limited number of reasons. Seeing the opportunity to tease it out of him, she innocently replied,"I don't know, what's on yours? You didn't come here trying to seduce me, did you?"

The skin over Jeremy's cheekbones suddenly flushed a shade of reddish-pink. He tried avoiding Aelita's gaze as she scrutinized him with a suspicious, slightly amused expression. "Uh, w-what?! No, of course not!" he stammered. "I came here because I noticed you were a little distant earlier. I was planning to talk to you about it when no one was around, so I waited until everyone else was asleep. I swear I didn't come here for any of _that_."

It was now Aelita's turn to become flustered. The young Lyoko princess had spent most of the afternoon and evening thinking only of the events in the virtual world. She remembered lounging on the rec room's sofa until the sun went down and saying very little at dinner as she quietly ate her food. Had it been that obvious to Jeremy? Then again, he did understand her best and probably deduced that there was something wrong before anyone else did. The knowledge of that helped to lift her spirits.

"You're worried about that picture of your dad in the Cortex, aren't you?" Jeremy guessed.

"Yeah," Aelita half-whispered, "and I can't stop thinking about it. It can't be a coincidence, and I'm afraid that all of this has something to do him, or that it's his own doing."

Jeremy reached up and placed a comforting hand on the distressed girl's shoulder. "I can bet you all the money in the world that that's not true. There's no way in hell Franz Hopper created that crazy Replika and brought XANA back to life."

"But—"

"Let me finish." Aelita quickly found herself in her boyfriend's embrace, his chin resting on her shoulder. "If it concerns you that much, then we're getting to the bottom of this. Your father was a good man, Aelita, and he sacrificed himself for you. If I have to go to the ends of the earth to clear his name, I will." He leaned back and looked her in the eye, reaching up to brush a loose pink bang out of her face. "Aelita, I promise you that I—that _we_—will find the answers you need. After we find out all we can about this Cortex and prove your father's innocence, we'll deal with XANA. He's immune to the anti-virus we used last time, but we'll find a way to kill him once and for all. And it won't just be the two of us doing all of this; the others—Yumi, Odd and Ulrich—they'll be with us every step of the way. We're all going to get through this because we love you. _I_ love you."

Choking up, Aelita began to cry, sniffling as hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She grabbed Jeremy and held him tight before kissing him on the lips. The blonde genius' hands wrapped around her waist as he delicately kissed back. She broke the contact and buried her faced into his clavicle. "T-thank you, Jeremy. I l-love you t-too," she blubbered.

"I know," Jeremy replied softly as he massaged her scalp. Before he knew it, the girl had suddenly fallen fast asleep, completely spent. Jeremy chuckled to himself, releasing the sleeping Aelita from his grip and and setting her down gently on the bed, tucking her in and letting her head rest on the pillow. He kissed her forehead and got up to leave. As he exited the room and closed the door behind him, he reflected on the new promise he had made to her. It was a big one, but he was determined to keep it. Aelita deserved a peaceful life, free from the troubles of her past and a chance focus on the future. He hoped that he would still be in that future somewhere.

* * *

**There you have it; chapter two over and done with!**


	3. Spectromania

**_Hi guys, it's me again! Here's chapter three! I've already gotten more than a hundred views now, but sadly not as much reviews or favorites. But enough of that now..._**

_Disclaimer: I can claim no ownership of Code Lyoko._

* * *

**Cañada Real**

Damon tapped his foot on the ground in a fast and steady rhythm, his patience being tried. He had been in line for an hour, and though only five people were between him and a decent meal, the time it had taken to get this far made him more than pissed off. As if alone that was not enough, the person who was next in line appeared to be chatting it up with the cook.

_Come on, stop talking and get your food,_ Damon said inwardly, using willpower to resist snapping at the woman who was wasting everybody's time.

The queue led to an open kiosk run by a few cooks as they prepared meat, vegetables and fruit. They were part of one of the nongovernmental organizations that often visited the slum, lending helping hands to the residents. Damon did not usually bother with them if he could help it, but he appreciated a free meal now and then.

He eventually reached the front of the line a few minutes later, ordering some beef brisket with a few chopped vegetables mixed together. He kept small talk to a minimum, too hungry and annoyed to get pulled into a conversation. Once it was all ready, he stuffed the food into a plastic bag he had with him, thanked the cook and turned around to head home.

On the way to the shack, Damon's eyes were once again offended by the pitiful state of his community. This time he walked right by a half-naked child playing in a pile of garbage, accompanied by a few fat pigs as they sifted through it for edible scraps. _I have to get out of this dump, _he thought, and he probably could if he tried hard enough. He had made enough cash to buy both a house and an intercontinental plane ticket, the bulk of the money being buried underneath his shack. As much as he would have liked to do that, being a legitimate homeowner would put him back on the grid and he could kiss his chances of hiding from Deckard, Inc. goodbye. Perhaps moving to a favela in Rio de Janeiro would be nice.

There was also another concern that needed addressing. Philippe had not contacted him on Skype the other day. Damon found it strange, especially since his friend was almost always on time for things and never changed his daily schedule. Shrugging it off as a fluke, Damon was confident that the older gentleman would get back to him at nine and explain why this was so.

He made it back to his shanty and undid the lock on the door, entering and quickly shutting it behind him. He plopped down on the cot in the corner and began to shamelessly scarf down his food with gusto. He didn't care about how he ate right now so long as he could fill his stomach, which felt too good for him to mind his table manners.

After filling up, he got up and traversed to his computer, sitting in front of it and switching it on. The machine's dusty old internals hummed to life as the monitor changed from black to blue, displaying multiple desktop icons. According to the clock, it was now nine in the morning so at any moment now, Philippe would be initiating a video chat. Three minutes passed with no contact from the other end. He eventually brought up his Skype page and clicked on Philippe's name in the contacts list. He waited for a few seconds as his computer hailed the other, which soon stopped and informed him that the particular machine he was trying to reach was unavailable.

_Where are you, Philippe?_

Deciding to make a risky move, Damon clicked on Philippe's home phone number with the hope that someone would pick up. It went straight to voice mail. His cellphone was next, but a tab came up with the message that the number was no longer in service. This was very troubling for Damon. Philippe would not suddenly change his phone number or refuse a call. How else was he supposed to talk with him and keep an eye out for Deckard?

_"I have to assume that I too will be disappearing in due course."_

The memory of Philippe's unsettling words came flooding back into Damon's mind. The unknown whereabouts of their ex-colleagues and sudden death of Christopher Steinbeck had led Philippe to suspect that they were being targeted. He had also shared with him the possibility that the culprits were from Deckard, Inc. or Phoenix. Given the political unrest being churned up by said organizations, it was entirely possible—no, entirely _probable_—that this was the case.

Damon knew he was already in a fix. Something beyond his control or ability to assess was happening, and the only person he knew to count could be very well be dead or kidnapped. In any case, he needed to speak with Philippe and confirm whether or not he been abducted or assassinated as he had predicted. As things stood, he simply could not afford to remain idle and hope that his attempts at communication were met with a response. It seemed his best option would be to physically meet with Philippe, which meant leaving the safety of the slum and returning to suburbia where he would be vulnerable.

_To go back to civilization. I must be out of my mind._

It was a bold move to make, that much was certain. Any careless actions might blow his cover and send those bastards from Deckard after him like a pack of bloodhounds. He had fake ID and hard cash, so going incognito would be relatively easy. If he made an effort to blend in, maybe he could pull it off.

Damon grabbed his hat and a pair of sunglasses, adorning his head with them. He then got up and squatted down, lifting up the sheet of plywood that lay in the middle of the floor. Beneath it was a hole deep and wide enough to fit a large cooking pot, filled with euros secured in bundling straps. The money was soon gathered into an old briefcase with personal essentials. Without looking back, Damon stepped out of the shack and headed down the road towards town where he would buy a train ticket for France.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

"I'm telling you right now," Odd was saying, "there's no better spy comedy than_ OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spie_s."

"I won't argue against that, but what about some of the newer stuff like _Get Smart_, or _Johnny English_? Aren't those any good?" Ulrich inquired. The two close friends had been discussing their preferable films by genre after class and were making a spirited lock of horns over what they believed to be superior examples. Trailing behind them were Jeremy and Aelita, who had the pleasure of quietly listening to the friendly argument.

Odd glowered at Ulrich as though he had committed blasphemy. "Hell, no! Comedy is a fleeting art that must be rejuvenated with its classics, not this new junk all these movie writers are coming out with these days!" he loudly proclaimed with an immovable mindset.

Aelita covered her mouth with a free hand as she made a childish giggle. "Well if you're so upset about it, maybe you should be a movie director."

"Don't let that power to your head, Odd, or you'll run every good actor out of Hollywood," Jeremy added somewhat snidely. The others began laughing. Odd felt a dent being made in his ego, but found himself chuckling a little as well.

The group slowed to a stop near one of the vacant benches that none of the other students were using as they socialized or traversed to their next period of the day. It was always fun to kill some time during the break before lunch, be it lounging in the rec room or outside enjoying the weather. Yumi arrived less than a minute later. "Hey guys, how was science?" The question was directed at either Jeremy or Aelita for the most part, as she already knew the answer from Odd or her boyfriend would probably be some adjective for _boring_ or _terrible_.

"Enjoyable as usual," Jeremy replied while taking a seat at the bench, "but I've had my mind on other things right now. It's about the Cortex."

"What about it?" Ulrich asked.

"If I'm remembering things right, your last adventure there didn't turn out too well for some of you, what with the Cortex's mechanical environment. Therefore, I decided you guys needed a new vehicle for safe travel." He retrieved his laptop from his bag and turned it on after unfolding it. On the screen were three open windows: two of them displayed codes in standard and binary form, while the third depicted a CGI skeletal graphic of what looked almost like a monster truck. "It's still in the embryonic stage," Jeremy continued, "but I'll have it finished in about two days from now. It should be able to adapt instantly to any change in terrain you may encounter the next time you take a trip to the Cortex."

"Man that thing is awesome!" an excited Odd stated. "I can't wait to drive it!"

Almost immediately after Odd was done speaking, the group's mutual feeling of intrigue was replaced by shock and dread. A new window appeared on the monitor which possessed the image of a Lyoko tower becoming red in color and the eye of XANA next to it, accompanied by an all too familiar beeping sound. At the worst possible time and when they were least expecting it, a tower had been activated in the virtual world.

"Are you effing serious?!" Ulrich exclaimed disbelievingly.

A short yet audible shriek escaped Aelita's lips as someone or something seized her from behind. All eyes came to rest upon a younger boy with blonde hair and a black suit. His arms were wrapped securely around her torso and refused to let go even as she struggled. The look on her face suggested she was in pain.

Ulrich, who was closest to his pink-haired friend, stepped up and pried the child off and away from her. As she was released, Aelita rubbed her temples to relieve her throbbing head as Jeremy came to her side, and Ulrich put his hands to his ears like he was hearing some terrible noise.

"Are you okay?" a concerned Yumi asked as she went up to her boyfriend and rested a hand on his shoulder. She glanced at the little kid, who approached them again with a dead stare. His body flickered like snow on a television screen, and the eye of XANA glowed over his irises. Before Yumi could react, the newly-identified polymorphic specter latched onto her as it had before with Aelita, and she began to feel like her breakfast was about to disagree with her. Fortunately, the specter was quickly shoved away by Jeremy, who ordered his friends to start running.

Without question or hesitation, the Lyoko warriors broke into a sprint, following their leader through the nearest double-door entrance of the science building. They nearly ran into several students and teachers in the hallway as they scrambled into the art room. Jeremy grabbed a broomstick propped up against the wall to insert through the door handle and over frame, creating a barricade.

After a few seconds of tension-filled silence, Odd cautiously peered around the edge of the wire mesh glass window. Still in the form of a finely-dressed young boy, the specter was standing only four meters away from the door, staring back at him. "He's just standing there...and it's pretty creepy."

"Guys, how are you feeling?" Jeremy asked the others.

"I've got a headache, and can't see clearly," Aelita reported.

"I feel sick, and my breathing feels weird," Yumi added. She had a hand over her exposed stomach and her chest was visibly rising with each strained heave of her lungs.

As for Ulrich, he vigorously shook his head and probed his ear canals with his fingers as if to clear an obstruction. "My ears keep buzzing, and I'm kind of dizzy," he said.

"Why don't I feel anything?" Odd queried.

Jeremy was already giving it some thought. "It must have something to do with the physical contact," he deduced, sending the cogs of his mind into overdrive. "The codes in your bodies have created some kind of integration between biology and computer instructions, which all of you," he gestured to all four of the fighting Lyoko warriors, "have had inside you for over two years now. Forcefully removing them probably creates some kind of temporary chemical imbalance."

"So what does that mean?" Odd asked, the detailed explanation having gone right over his head.

"It means that if the specter touches you and takes the codes, you feel like crap. Understand?"

"Ah, got it."

"So," Yumi swallowed, "what's the plan?"

"Same as always: virtualize, and deactivate the tower," Aelita grunted. "Odd, since you haven't been affected and that it's only one specter, I think you should stay and create a diversion."

Odd grinned and zealously gripped his right fist with his open left hand. "Don't you worry; I'll take care of that twerp."

"Just make sure that specter doesn't touch you too much," Jeremy stressed. "We can't afford to lose any more codes." He walked up to one of the room's windows and pushed it open, before climbing out through the open frame. "Come on, you guys."

One by one, Aelita, Yumi and Ulrich carefully maneuvered out the window and followed Jeremy as he led them across the running track. They could tell that he was being extra vigilant on their behalf by visually scanning the immediate area in front of and behind them. Given the condition of his comrades, Jeremy knew that if the specter saw through their plan and intercepted them, they would be vulnerable.

They snuck into the gymnasium and entered the hidden passageway that had been excavated long ago, which eventually opened up into the large and cavernous tunnels of the sewer. The scooters and skateboards that often saw use in situations such as this were ignored as three of the four warriors were in no shape to be riding on a small and fast-moving means of conveyance. The journey to the factory would have to continue on foot.

A few minutes into the trek, Ulrich's foot slipped on the edge of the walkway. With the ringing in his ears messing with his equilibrium, he was unable to correct himself and would have fallen into the water if not for Jeremy's timely intervention. He grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him to safety. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Ulrich replied. "I'm just still feeling dizzy."

"How about you girls?" Jeremy looked to Aelita and Yumi.

"Still feels like I'm going to throw up, but I'm managing," the Japanese girl said. "How are we going to feel on Lyoko?"

"Well, Lyoko is virtual, and complicated biology doesn't necessarily apply to avatars," Jeremy began to explain. "In theory, you'll feel fine when virtualized and not experience things like hunger, fatigue or illness."

Yumi forced a smile. "That's good, because barfing in the virtual world must be weird."

Eventually, the gang had reached the runoff to the Seine, and climbed the ladder up to the bridge. It occurred to them as Jeremy got off at the control room that they were adjusting back to their old lifestyles faster than they had imagined they would. Rappelling from the ropes and getting into the elevator had been so natural for them that one may have guessed they had never stopped doing it since the first time they first began fighting XANA.

_"Okay guys," _Jeremy's voice rattled through the intercom, _"I'm starting the virtualization process, so please ready up."_

The trio of warriors quickly entered the cramped scanners and waited for the thin doors to close as Jeremy activated the machines.

_"Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Aelita. Virtualization."_

* * *

**Desert Sector**

The three avatars formed in midair simultaneously and touched down on the ground. They registered the environment as that of the Desert Sector of Lyoko after getting a look at their surroundings. It was exactly like they had remembered it; a collection of dry and dusty plateaus dotted with rock formations of various shapes and sizes. In some respects, it was very much like one would expect if they landed or Mars. It was also arguably the most hostile environment for Team Lyoko to operate in, what with the open terrain permitting XANA to create any large and powerful monster of his choosing.

_"How are you holding up? Still feeling anything from the specter?"_

"Not a thing," Aelita reported.

"Me neither," Yumi added.

Ulrich was feeling better as well. He smiled and looked up at the orange sky, considering it the only way to directly address Jeremy's omnipresence. "You were right, Jeremy; we're totally fine."

_"That's the benefit of being virtual,"_ Jeremy said. _"Anyway, the tower is about a few kilometers from your position, directly east. Here come your vehicles."_

Next to both Yumi and Ulrich appeared their respective vehicles, the Overwing and Overbike, which they climbed onto once they were finished assembling. While her friends revved their throttles and sped forward on their virtual machines, Aelita summoned her angelic wings and flew over them at the same speed. The tower could not be seen on the horizon yet, but they knew they were headed in the right direction.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Propped up against the art room's door, Odd twiddled his thumbs and gently knocked his head against the window to create a distinct rhythm. Waiting around as live bait for the specter was so boring that he was struggling to stay awake. Normally he'd let himself fall asleep in class every now and then, but that was out of the question given the circumstances. If he did, the specter would drain him and, after discovering that the rest of his group was missing, would go after them to do the same thing after he was done away with. To keep up this distraction, he needed to stimulate his mind with daydreams and trivial thoughts.

_God, this is a whole new level of boring. Come on, think about something! Lunch, dinner, desert, Mom's home-cooking, _Time Control_, _Halo_,_ Call of Duty_, boobs, porn..._

As he became lost in thought, Odd was caught off guard by a _knock_ against the glass and spun around to assess the possible threat. It was not the specter, but rather Kadic's drama and fine arts teacher Mr. Chardin. The boring old man was rapping his knuckles against the door's window, his other arm wrapped around his leather bag of supplies.

"Odd, is that you?" he asked suspiciously. "Please open this door."

Although he did not particularly care for him, Odd was still a member of Mr. Chardin's Film Club, and getting on the man's bad side could cost him his extracurricular activities. He forgot about the specter for a minute and removed the broom to open the door, nervously scratching the back of his head and giving the teacher a sheepish smile. "Hey uh, how are you doing, sir?"

Mr. Chardin eyed the student carefully. "I'm doing fine, Odd, but I want to know why you barricaded yourself inside my classroom. Shouldn't you be in class right now?"

While the old man was talking, Odd briefly turned his attention to the spot where the specter had been standing. It had vanished. That was not a good sign. Had it seen through his trick and gone after the others? Or perhaps it had merely changed its appearance to attack him. Another grim possibility was that the specter could have taken the form of Mr. Chardin and was actually deceiving him this very moment.

Going with his gut, Odd squeezed past his teacher and ran away as fast as he could. He could hear Mr. Chardin calling after him, demanding that he stop and explain himself or face detention. The threat was ignored as Odd continued running, eventually exiting the science building and passing one of the dorm entrances. He stopped to catch his breath under the building's pillared archway, using one of the thick supports as cover while he checked to see if he was being followed. As far as he could tell he was all alone except for a few students here or there, who seemed to be paying him no mind.

Odd's smartphone began to vibrate in his pants pocket. He reached down to take it out when he felt a presence close by accompanied by the sound of small footsteps. He looked up to see the same little boy—or, rather, the specter—lunging forward and bringing him into its potent embrace.

"No offense," Odd grunted, "but I'm really hoping you're just some damaged kid who needs a little love." He received no reply except for being squeezed harder. Finding the necessary leverage in his arms, Odd pushed the specter off of him and stumbled for a moment as the shape and color of everything in sight became horribly distorted.

* * *

**Desert Sector**

A few minutes into their journey, the virtualized Lyoko warriors were passing through a sparse cluster of hoodoos when they encountered the first wave of XANA's monsters. Ulrich spotted a Tarantula in the right corner of his eye at least twenty meters away. It was kneeling with the lasers on its front legs pointed straight at him and fired, but the German samurai's reflexes were fast. He let his body slip off from the Overbike as a sizzling pulse of red energy flew past his face and impacted on the side of the rocky spire next to him. The Tarantula reacquired its target and sent a rapid burst of laser fire at Ulrich, who deflected them with his katanas as he ran behind cover.

Losing sight of Ulrich, the monster aimed and fired at the girls, forcing them to take evasive action. Yumi dismounted the Overwing to hide behind one of the hoodoos and was subsequently joined by Aelita as she retracted her wings. They were pinned down, and rushing out to attack would be risky with the Tarantula laying suppressive fire on them as it was now. To get out of this situation, some direction was needed.

"Jeremie, is the tower still far off?" Yumi asked over the sound of the lasers.

_"Just less than half a kilometer away," _Jeremy's voice crackled in her head. _"Shouldn't be too hard for you guys to reach."_

"What about Odd? Did you call him yet?"

_"I tried, but he won't pick up." _There was a pause. _"Uh-oh, two Bloks coming up behind you!"_

Both Aelita and Yumi spun around two catch a pair of cube-shaped monsters—aptly nicknamed Bloks—scuttling towards them. Yumi drew one of her fans and threw it. The weapon spun through the air in a thin arc, slicing through one of the Blok's eye and returning to its wielder as the monster exploded. Aelita was already airborne again as she hurled a pink energy ball at the other Blok, destroying it. As more of them appeared, Aelita found herself being shot by one of the Tarantula's laser bolts. Fortunately, they had help.

"I'll get him!" Ulrich called to them from his position. The young man gripped the hilts of his swords tightly and used his super-sprint ability. He left a motion blur in his wake as he sprinted towards the monster at ten times faster than the average human. The Tarantula noticed him and sent a few laser pulses in his direction. Before he could be hit in the leg, Ulrich leaped into the air and executed several complete roll maneuvers like a trained acrobat. He landed directly on the monster's white head, slashing deep into its eye of XANA. As the Tarantula convulsed, Ulrich did a back flip and alighted on the surface of the plateau, watching with a satisfied smirk as the creature exploded into a mess of iridescent red shards that were soon sucked into oblivion.

_"Nice one, Ulrich," _Jeremy praised, _"but there are three more monsters closing in on you."_

Right after receiving the warning, Ulrich was knocked off his feet by the force of a laser impacting into his back. He floundered on the ground for a few seconds before realizing that three Bloks had surrounded him in a tight triangular formation. They were focusing on him with the most powerful weapons they possessed—the eye that created rings of fire. Ulrich reached for one of his katanas that had fallen on the ground, though his effort could have been faster. The Bloks simultaneously opened fire, destroying the boy's avatar before he could defend himself.

* * *

**Factory**

"Dammit!" Jeremy cursed, slamming a fist into the armrest of his chair. He knew better than to blame Ulrich for being devirtualized by the enemy, though it meant getting Aelita to the tower would be harder with Yumi as her only escort. As he digested this, his phone began to buzz in his pocket. He fished it out and checked the caller ID, confirming it to be Odd. He accepted the call and held it up to his ear, saying, "Odd, finally; what's happening with you?

_"Jeremy, it's the specter!" _Odd sounded like he was nearly out of breath, and from the discernible background noise, he was probably running. _"The little sucker touched me and it's like I'm on some bad acid trip! I can't shake him!"_

_Great, just great,_ thought the young genius. "Understood, Odd. Please calm down, okay? I'll send you some backup in a minute."

_"Make it fast! I keep running into things!"_

After hanging up, Jeremy found himself joined by Ulrich, who had made his way up to the lab from the scanner room. He looked no better than he did before going to Lyoko. "How do you feel?" Jeremy asked him.

"The buzzing is back, and I think it's a little worse."

"Can you get back to the school on your own? Odd could use your help."

Ulrich shrugged. "I can't leave him by himself, can I?" He turned around and went back to the elevator, stepping into the car and letting the door shut behind him after pressing a button. Jeremy couldn't help but admire his friend's perseverance. He then his attention back to the monitor and reopened the channel for communication.

"Bad news, girls: Odd's in a bit of a fix and just lost some of his codes. I don't know how it's affecting him, but he's freaking out."

* * *

**Desert Sector**

"Roger that, Jeremy. We'll try to get to the tower as fast as possible," Aelita responded. She had just destroyed another Blok from midair and spotted another one approaching Yumi from behind. "Look out!"

Yumi flicked one tessen fan back over her right shoulder without looking. The weapon sliced through the monster and was caught in her left hand as it returned. "We can't stay here forever. Let's go."

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

From what Odd could tell, he was just outside of the administrative building. While he could see clearly, everything he looked at appeared severely warped or misshapen, and the visible colors his photoreceptor cells detected continuously changed to hues of purple, yellow, red, blue and so forth. Luckily the psychedelic symptoms were beginning to wear off, making the act of navigation fairly easier. Just when Odd thought his troubles were subsiding, the specter, still disguised as a little boy, took hold of him once again and proceeded to siphon more source codes from his body. Not being in the condition to vigorously fight back, he shoved the specter away and into the nearby brick wall.

The double-doors off to the left suddenly swung open and Jim stepped out, glaring at Odd accusingly. "There you Are Della Robbia," he said, walking up to him. "First I hear that you're locking teachers out of their classrooms; I guess you've decided to do this instead of playing in the freezer. Now I find you picking on little kids? I didn't think you could be a bully." He turned his attention to the "youngster", crouching slightly to meet it at eye level. "You okay? What's your name?"

Odd wasn't sure if the specter, or XANA for that matter, had the capacity to answer such questions like the ones Jim was asking. If so, he was screwed. Instead of a verbal response, the specter turned and ran off in the direction of the park. "Hey, come back here!" Jim commanded, throwing Odd a fleeting glance before chasing after the specter and blowing his whistle.

_Thank God. That was weird, but still, thank God. _Odd was about to walk away but felt a hand firmly grasp his shoulder. Startled, he turned around fast and recognized the figure next to him as Ulrich after careful scrutinizing.

"Don't worry, I'm here to give you a hand," he said. "Jim may come back, so let's go to the dorms and hide somewhere."

"Good idea. But could you, like, help me there? I can't really see straight."

* * *

**Desert Sector**

For Team Lyoko's ladies, the rest of the high-stakes odyssey had continued on foot, or, in Aelita's case, by wing. Yumi had not bothered to reclaim the Overwing after abandoning it, and worrying about it now was tedious. The tower was not far off anyway. All they had to do was overcome the tall sand dune they were approaching and they would be able to see it in the middle of a large, flat plain. They had just reached the foot of the dune when one of the pursuing Bloks fired its laser at Lyoko's airborne princess twice. The first red energy bolt missed completely, but the second had made direct contact with her abdominal area. Aelita's wings lost their lift and she tumbled in midair before landing on the side of the sloping surface in a heap.

_"Yumi, be careful about Aelita,"_ Jeremy's disembodied voice urged the ninja._ "Remember that she's the only one who can deactivate the towers."_

Yumi stopped running and inverted herself to glare daggers at the monsters while replying in a disgruntled tone of voice, "I'm doing my best. Getting Aelita to the tower has been the only thing on my mind." She drew he fans and threw the one in her right hand, leaning her upper body forward whilst lifting her leg back and up in the air like a professional ballerina. The Blok on the left was swiftly cut down by the saw-edged weapon that sliced through it and flew back to its owner.

The other Blok charged its laser and fired at Aelita, who rolled out of the way in time to avoid losing more life points. Yumi retaliated by throwing the fan in her left hand at the cubic monster. The creature sidestepped the incoming tessen and returned fire, hitting Yumi in the chest. She fell flat on her back from the force.

"Yumi!" Aelita cried.

The young Japanese girl sat up and looked at her friend with a critical expression. "Go ahead, Aelita! Get to the tower!"

Aelita was now on her feet and racing up to the peak of the dune, disappearing over the horizon. Once Yumi had gotten up, she noticed the surviving Blok that had thwarted her attempt to destroy it was on the move. It payed her no mind and was scuttling around the sand dune and a few rocks. _Oh no, _Yumi thought. She knew what it was going to do.

On the other side of the dune, Aelita's feet were in contact with even ground again as she scanned the area ahead of her. She could see the edge of the plateau in the distance and sparse rock formations. In the center of it all was the tower, which had to be at least another kilometer away. The distance may have been far, but it was a straight shot. For a second, it felt like victory was being served to her on a silver platter.

"I can see the tower, Jeremy," she voiced. Before she could take another step or start flying again, she was shot in the back by the Blok's charged laser. Her body exploded in a puff of square pixels, followed by her digital outline that fell to the ground before it faded away. By the time her avatar was completely gone, Yumi had climbed to the top of the dune just in time to see it. She was not mentally traumatized to see a teammate devirtualized, especially after witnessing it more times than she recall numerically and knowing that they weren't dead, though she definitely felt rocked by watching it happen to Aelita of all people. There went the chance to stop XANA.

"Jeremy, what do we do now?" Yumi asked both him and herself to an extent.

_"It'll take twelve hours before I can send Aelita back to Lyoko,"_ Jeremy explained with a hint of dread in his voice. He was probably thinking the same thing as Yumi.

"You mean it's over?"

_"Yeah...I guess it's over. I'll devirtualize you right now."_

_"Wait!"_ a voice—Aelita's voice—frantically cut in. _"Yumi, can you hear me? I want you to try deactivating the tower."_

"_What_? Aelita, _you're_ the only one who can do that."

_"I have a hunch that you can too. We don't have much choice anyway, so do you trust me?"_

To Yumi, the idea of deactivating the tower herself sounded ridiculously farfetched if not ludicrous. Jeremy was probably thinking the same thing. For as long as they had been Lyoko warriors, it had always been Aelita who could do it and not the others simply because they did not share the same molecular and somewhat spiritual connection with Lyoko. However, Aelita's intuition was strong, and Yumi could tell by her tone of voice that she had a gut feeling about this. This made her confident in the possibility. "Okay," she said. "I'll give it a try. Are you with us, Jeremy?"

Jeremy hesitated, but responded with, _"What do we have to lose? You'd better get to that tower, because it really is our only option."_

Yumi instantly became mobile, running down the dune to confront the Blok. It fired at her and missed. The steep angle of the slope had little traction for her boots, but it did not deter her. She put all her weight into her heels to slide down the dune towards the monster. She gathered strength in her legs and jumped when she reached the bottom, the downhill momentum and inertia sending her into an arched trajectory over the Block. When she was directly over it, Yumi threw her fans down on the construct's "head", knocking it over on one side from the force of the impact.

Yumi landed on the ground in a kneeling position, looking back over her shoulder to see the Blok now rendered mostly harmless. Its crablike legs flailed about, trying to find leverage to right itself with. Jeremy programmed the Overwing to autonomously drive to Yumi's position. She jumped aboard once it arrived and steered the vehicle in the direction of the distant tower.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Ulrich and Odd scrambled into their dorm room together, the latter shutting the door behind him and locking it. While they took a moment to catch their breath, Kiwi woke up and clambered out of the nest of clothes from Odd's open dresser. He wagged his tail with excitement as he trotted up to his master, looking like he was about to start jumping around and barking. Odd knelt down and calmed him, saying, "It's okay, boy. Here, have some grub." He pulled out a small plastic bag of crackers and ripped it open, proceeding to empty the contents into his palm and hold them out to the little dog, who quickly devoured the salty snacks.

"Odd, we have a problem," Ulrich said, beckoning for his friend to join him by the window. Odd stood back up and went to see what it was that Ulrich was looking at in the courtyard. He scanned the terrain and tried to make out the contorted objects with his impaired eyesight until he saw something that did not look good. The specter personified as a younger kid darted across the campus, followed by Jim, who was being outrun. Before the specter disappeared around the corner of the building, its head snapped up to look directly at the two Lyoko warriors.

"Oh, shit, he saw us." Odd looked to his roommate. "He's probably coming here right now."

Thinking quickly, Ulrich ran to his bed and used his strength to drag the mattress and frame towards the door. Odd took the hint and pushed on the other end, angling the piece of furniture in front of the doorway to further fortify it. When finished, they sat with their backs against the bed and quietly awaited the inevitable. There was no guarantee that the specter could be held back, but every precious second mattered at the moment.

"Do you think he'll miss us?" Odd whispered. The cylinder of the door's locking mechanism was suddenly propelled from its boltwork and across the room like the cork of a champagne bottle, a purple streak of electricity discharging behind it. Kiwi started barking with his teeth exposed and heckles raised. The boys felt a powerful shove from behind and tried resisting by pushing back on the bed frame as hard as they could.

"I'm guessing _no_," Ulrich grunted.

* * *

**Desert Sector**

The single Blok proved to be rather aggressive in its pursuit of Yumi, moving as fast as possible on its short legs and firing at her repeatedly. One of the red bolts was able to hit her directly in the small of her back, causing her to fall from the Overwing and tumble on the ground at high speed before slowing to a stop. Dazed, Yumi silently cursed herself for careless. She got up and sprinted for the tower that was now only half a football field away. She was so close that she couldn't think of anything else but getting in there and punching in the code that would cut XANA off from Lyoko and earn her a day of peace and quiet.

She looked back again and saw the Blok rotating its "head" to aim at her with another eye. C_rap, _she thought. It was either the rings of fire or the immobilizing ice, which, in any case, was not something she wanted to deal with. With a short burst of energy, Yumi threw herself at the tower and phased through it right when three flaming halos impacted on its matte-black surface.

Yumi landed with a somersault and rolled until she was standing again. She briefly checked her surroundings to assure herself that she had indeed made it inside. The walls of the confined space were checkered with screens depicting binary code, and she was on the edge of a platform shaped like the eye of XANA. "I did it," she called out to Jeremy and Aelita. "What do I do now?"

_"The operations are intuitive: you have to walk into the center of the platform and imagine that you want to go up," _she heard Aelita explain in detail. _"After that, picture an interface appearing in front of you. When it does, touch the lower right corner with your hand and when it asks for the code, just imagine it being typed it."_

"Okay, I'll try." Yumi took a few cautious steps forward into the center of the platform, the inner rings and dot of the XANA symbol illuminating as she crossed over them. She took a relaxing breath and calmly envisioned herself floating up the smaller platform. A gentle white glow formed around her body as she felt herself being carried upwards by some invisible force. Yumi couldn't make much sense of the sensation or describe it, given somewhat limited physical laws of the virtual world.

Touching down on the platform, the interface Aelita had mentioned appeared out of thin air after mentally visualizing it. She placed her right hand on the transparent screen to activate it, leaving a hand print that faded away after a few seconds. She imagined the words as they formed:

**CODE:**

**LYOKO_**

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Despite exerting all their physical strength, Ulrich and Odd realized they were losing the battle against the specter. Just when they thought their muscles would give out, there was a flash of green light followed by the instant cessation of the pushing force from the other side of the door. Kiwi quickly calmed down and sat on his rear, displaying no aggression whatsoever. The two roommates remained seated on the floor with their backs against the frame of Ulrich's bed, breathing heavily and wiping a few beads of sweat from their brows. They did not know what to make of the situation at first until they realized that the others had probably deactivated the tower and stopped XANA. It occurred to both of them that their symptoms had disappeared: no buzzing in the ears or vivid hallucinations.

Odd started to snicker, which soon became a chuckle, and then laughter. Ulrich eventually joined in, albeit not as loud or boisterous as that of his friend. There was nothing about their situation that was funny; it was an expression of their shared relief and the denial of the fear they felt a few seconds ago. The exuberant chortles died down when they heard the ringtone of Ulrich's iPhone. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and accepted the call after confirming it to be Jeremy on the other end.

"Yeah?"

_"Hey, are you and Odd okay?" _he heard Jeremy ask.

"Yeah, the specter just fizzled out when it was about to get us," Ulrich answered. "I'm guessing that means Aelita got to the tower, right?"

_"Not quite. Aelita got devirtualized five minutes ago and had Yumi take her place. _She _deactivated it."_

Ulrich blinked twice. "I'm sorry? Hold on a sec; I'll put you on speaker." He took the device away from his ear and pressed the correct button on the screen, after which he held it out between Odd and himself.

_"It was Yumi who deactivated the tower," _Jeremy summarized. _"I think it's because of the source codes inside you. Franz Hopper designed Lyoko to be compatible with his and Aelita's DNA and virtual makeup. XANA is also compatible with Lyoko because he was designed to operate within it. Since there's a part of XANA in all three of you right now, Lyoko's systems respond to you as well."_

Both Ulrich and Odd found this information mind-blowing. It was also kind of ironic in its own way: XANA may have been intelligent enough to use their bodies to survive the last time they fought, but the methods of which had come with a cost. If Jeremy was correct, the Lyoko warriors had a distinct advantage over him, and no longer needed to rely solely on Aelita to stop the AI the next time it attacked. As far as Odd was concerned, this called for some sort of celebration later on.

_"Wait a second," _Jeremy said. Four seconds passed before he continued. _"Okay, bad news; we have another active tower. XANA used the other one as a decoy to throw us off the trail."_

"Another tower?" Odd asked disbelievingly. "Does that mean there's another specter?"

_"Most likely."_

"Where's the tower?"

_"Still in the Desert Sector."_

The pointy-haired blond boy shook his head with exasperation. "I'm staying in here for as long as I have to. I don't care if it's for the whole day or even—"

_"I'm sorry, Odd, but Aelita and Ulrich were already devirtualized," _Jeremy interrupted with an authority on his tongue. _"Yumi's alone on Lyoko and may need backup, so you have to come to the factory."_

Odd sighed. "Okay, I'll come. Just make sure you find that specter before it sneaks up on and does I-don't-know-what to me."

* * *

**Factory**

"We'll see what we can do," Jeremy assured.

"I can use my laptop to analyze and calibrate the tower's signal. That way we might know what form that new specter has taken," Aelita offered.

Jeremy made an approving nod of his head. While Aelita trudged over to her bag lying next to the elevator door, her boyfriend switched channels on his earpiece to get in touch with Yumi again. "Okay, Yumi, I need you to try getting to the other tower. I'll run a little program so you can see that Blok out there first. Good luck."

_"Okay, thanks."_

* * *

**Desert Sector**

After acknowledging everything she heard Jeremy say, Yumi stepped off the edge of the platform to slowly float down to the lower level of the tower. A circular portal expanded into existence on the bluish-black wall, concentrated on the Blok. It scuttled around the structure from outside, probably coordinating an ambush for when the Lyoko warrior decided to make her exit. Unfortunately for the Blok, though, it could not see her, whereas she could see it perfectly.

When the monster aligned itself with the bridge connecting to the platform, Yumi produced her tessen fans in preparation for attack. Summoning all the speed and agility in her virtual avatar, she sprang, leaping out of the tower and landing on top of the Blok's body. Caught off guard, the monster's simple AI took a second to assess the threat and counteract the threat. The Blok's cubic upper half began rotating on an axis at high speed to dislodge the pesky human. Yumi kept her balance and threw her weapons in a downward arc. The fans cut through the monster's weak spot, emerged violently out the other side, and traveled up in a tight loop before being caught again in the young woman's hands. She flipped backwards and landed perfectly on the ground a short distance from the Blok, watching with satisfaction as it exploded.

_"Perfect; continue straight,"_ she heard Jeremy say. _"You'll find the next tower at the end of a gorge."_

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Opening the door, Ulrich quietly stepped out into the empty hallway. Odd followed after him, taking the time to give the busted lock one last fleeting look. How would they explain themselves if and when Jim found out? If all the blame was shifted to Odd's usual tomfoolery, there was a chance of them getting off easy and just end up paying for a replacement. At least they both had part-time jobs to earn the money from.

The duo made their way down the next few floors and outside the building again, keeping their eyes peeled for any possible specter activity. Ulrich could tell by his body language that Odd was paranoid. His watchful eyes fell upon every person in sight, and when someone passed by he would tense up.

"Don't get so worked up; specters usually come straight for you," Ulrich stated informatively.

Odd was about to say something, but was interrupted by his ringing phone. Jeremy was on the other end. _"Odd, we've managed to figure out what the specter looks like."_

"Really? How?"

_"I'll explain later, but Odd, the specter has disguised itself as Ulrich."_

Gulping, Odd nervously looked up at Ulrich, who looked back with what appeared to be innocent curiosity. Letting his imagination run wild, he began wondering if this was not Ulrich at all but instead another polymorphic specter that had successfully deceived him.

"You okay?" Ulrich asked suddenly.

"Well I, uh...," Odd began to stammer, "I just thought that maybe I can make it to the factory on my own. See yah!"

"Hey, wh—"

Too late. Odd was off and gone before any further protest could made. Ulrich sighed and shook his head. _What a spaz_, he thought. He started to walk in the direction his deserting friend had gone before he froze. At first he assumed it was nothing more than an optical illusion, but after focusing he realized he was looking into the eye of _himself_. He knew they were not really _his_ eyes, though, not after catching the brief flickering of light over the pupils. The specter grinned at him in the same manner that he himself would when determined to complete a rigorous task, albeit far more sinister.

_Oh, boy._

* * *

**Desert Sector**

Yumi reduced the speed of her Overwing after entering the mouth of the canyon, maneuvering the vehicle around oncoming obstacles while following the snaking path like a road. Based on images she had seen on the Internet, Yumi could see how this gorge was more man-made in comparison to the natural and irregular ones on Earth. While Franz Hopper's designing of Lyoko was ingenious, it would appear that he had left out a few key and realistic details.

A stray pulse of laser energy flew past from behind and impacted on one of the cliff walls. Yumi looked back and saw a Krab sprinting after her. Naturally, she revved the throttle to outpace the pursuing monster, but found herself speeding straight for a thick spire of rock jutting up from the ground. She was moving too fast to slow down in time, and a faint memory of what happened in the Cortex told her the subsequent crash would not end well.

In a knee-jerk reaction, she let go of the handle bars and jumped off the Overwing. She landed on her feet as the vehicle collided with the tall obstruction, disintegrating in a storm of large pixels the size of the Krab closing in, Yumi ran as fast as she possibly could, heading deeper into the canyon. More laser bolt whizzed over her head before one managed to hit her in the shoulder. Fortunately the pain was quick, but it meant that she had lost even more life points. Yumi kept running despite the imminent danger of being devirtualized.

_"That last shot was fully charged. One more and it's all over for you," _Jeremy apprised.

"Thanks for the heads up," Yumi replied, "but where's Odd? Did he stop to get a snack on the way or something?!"

_"Don't worry, he just got here and is being virtualized. He'll be with you shortly."_

_Shortly_ did not feel like it would be soon enough. The Krab was getting closer and improving in its aim bit by bit. Yumi kept running as the canyon formed a gradual leftward curve until its narrow walls opened into an enormous bowl. The tower was in the center, on top of a small chunk of rock floating in the air. She stopped to drink in the sight until the distinct _clanks_ of the pursuing monster's legs became louder and stopped. The Krab was only fifteen meters from Yumi when she turned around, charging its laser to deliver the final blow.

"HEY, OVER HERE!" someone shouted. Overhead, Yumi could see a small purple object against the orange sky that grew in size until her eyes could discern its shape. It was Odd! His feline avatar was riding the Overboard at full speed towards the Krab, which pivoted around to obtain visual contact with its new foe. Odd was the first to attack, shooting multiple laser arrows at the monster.

The projectiles were not as accurate as they could have been, but the barrage forced the Krab to back into the wall of gorge. Yumi saw her chance when she realized the Krab was cornered. She threw one of her tessen fans straight for the weak spot. Instead of impacting as planned, the fan ricocheted off the rim of the creature's carapace. Before she could throw her other fan or use her telekinesis, the Krab took aim at her and fired. The speeding laser bolt found its mark in the middle of Yumi's chest, subtracting her remaining life points and devirtualizing her.

Odd's dismay from Yumi's defeat was followed by anger over his failure to support her. He accelerated the Overwing straight towards the Krab, letting loose another volley of laser arrows that peppered it from top to bottom. He rode through the resulting explosion and slowed to a stop.

"Jeremy, what do we do now?" he despaired, unsure of what to do.

_"Try deactivating the tower on your own," _Jeremy's voice crackled in his head. _"If it worked for Yumi, it should for you."_

"Okay." Odd leisurely steered the board to the tower, feeling less than confident yet determined with his new mission.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Desperate to find somewhere to hid, Ulrich's feet had brought him to the gymnasium on the other side of the academy. The specter had disappeared sometime after he fled from it, though he was certain it was not far away. He could guess that it was stalking him at a distance and waiting for the opportunity to attack the second he let his guard down.

He reached the red metal doors at the corner of the building, grabbing the simple handles and pulling on them. The doors refused to open or even budge. Jim must have locked them.

_Dammit, _now_ what do I do?_

Ulrich spun around when a rustling noise from behind grabbed his attention. The specter stepped out from behind a tree on the edge of the grove and stared back at him. He wished it would just assume another form and stop taunting him with his own face. Until now, he did not think himself capable of producing such grotesque and haunting facial expressions like the one the specter was. That aside, what was he to do now? The fight-or-flight instinct was in full effect and had narrowed everything down to two options.

Ulrich chose the "fight" option. If he decided to bolt in the open like this, the specter would almost certainly catch him. He calmed himself and entered the second sikap pasangstance, a defensive standing position for pencak silat. If the specter suddenly attacked with a hand or foot strike, he would be ready to counteract with a sideward kick. The specter made a gravelly chuckle and slowly advanced.

* * *

**Desert Sector**

Getting inside the tower was easy for Odd, but now came the hard part. He was very eager to end the attack, but with that came stress. As Aelita had pointed out to him a few seconds ago, interacting with an activated tower required clear thinking and concentration. While he consciously knew what he wanted to do—levitating up and using the interface—his level of anxiety and mental noise were in conflict with the state of intuitive clarity that he needed. This became apparent when, even as he thought of it, found himself grounded on the lower platform.

"Ugh! Come on!"

_"Don't force it, Odd,"_ Aelita cautioned. _"You have to be calm when you do this."_

"I know! Just let me concentrate!" the cat boy snapped. "Okay; I want to go up. I want to go up." Odd let himself temporarily forget about everything else and focused specifically on the possibility that something would carry him to the smaller platform above. His wish came true as a white aura appeared around his body and he started floating.

He alighted on the upper level and visualized the interface into existence. He put his right paw on the lower right corner and let his mind do the rest.

**CODE:**

**LYOKO_**

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

The specter lunged and was but centimeters away from Ulrich when glowing iridescent cracks appeared on the surface of its body. Ulrich had to shield his eyes as his malevolent double exploded in a bright flash of green light, leaving behind some digital mist that quickly evaporated. Ulrich took a deep breath of relief when his brain made sense of what had happened, letting his muscles relax and his arms fall to his sides. His phone began ringing once again and he answered it, knowing that Jeremy wanted to check up on him. "Yeah, Jeremy?"

_"Hey, Ulrich, are you okay?"_

"I'm fine now. The specter disappeared when it was about to get me. I guess that means Odd deactivated the tower, right?"

_"He sure did,"_ Jeremy said with some victorious pride. _"Looks like your source codes are safe for another day."_

"That's great, but what do we do to measure how much of these codes we have left?"

_"Leave that one to me. In fact, I've been working on something since Monday night that I can get finished later."_

_...XXX..._

Once they had regrouped, Jeremy summoned the rest of Team Lyoko back to his room to present them with the new equipment that he had mentioned to Ulrich earlier. Currently attached to the wrists of the four fighters were devices that bore a strong resemblance to digital watches. They had square faces with straps and LED screens that matched the uniform of each wearer's avatar, the latter of which sporting a white XANA symbol in the middle of the analog. Micro-USB cables connected them to the dorm room's desktop computer as they were synced to the shared data of the supercomputer.

"I call them Trans-watches," Jeremy began explaining. "I've been working on them since the day XANA came back. They're designed to measure the amount of codes in your bodies." On the monitor was a display of the warriors' virtual ID cards adjacent to vertical column bars. It was noted by the wearers that the screens of their Trans-watches were not entirely "full": several rows of pixels that constituted the analogs were switched off, acting as a gauge like that which measured the fuel capacity of a car's gas tank. They were in perfect parallel with the bar graph on the computer.

"Great, it looks like I've lost the most," Odd said despondently, observing the fact that his remaining codes were at seventy-seven percent in comparison to his friends, which still measured in the low to mid-nineties. "Gotta say, though, I've really given a lot of myself today."

"Yeah, like abandoning me, for instance," added Ulrich.

Odd raised his hands defensively. "You could have been a specter for all I knew."

"If I were a specter, you'd have been dead a long time ago, idiot."

"I resent that."

"Anyway," Jeremy resumed talking, "if my calculations on the code to power ratio are to be credited, XANA should have seventy percent of his maximum input and output by now."

All of the positive energy that had filled the room earlier was suddenly gone, replaced by a spine-tingling sense of dread. Even Odd could not think of some funny quip to lighten the mood with. It was Yumi who decided to break the tension with the question that she, along with her boyfriend and his roommate, were thinking about. "So...what happens if it reaches one hundred?"

"He'll be more powerful than ever before," Aelita stoically answered. "The entire global network will belong to him, and nobody, not even us, will be able to do anything about it."

* * *

**Korangal Valley**

A white golf ball sailed a hundred yards through the air in a long arc before bouncing and rolling along the gravelly, uneven terrain of the Afghan mountainside. Its path was interrupted as it fell into a coffee mug that was half-buried in the dirt next to one of the sparse plants supported by the ecosystem.

Erik Graven whistled with astonishment, observing the ball's progress through a pair of binoculars. Beside him was Alan Meyer, a long-range wood club in his hands. "My God, a hole-in-one. Great job, sir."

"Thanks, but it could have been better," Meyer said meekly, inserting the club into the equipment bag slung over Graven's shoulder. "My calculations were slightly off: it didn't go right in as I had anticipated."

"Nobody's perfect," Graven reasoned.

"You insult me. Now let's get back to the others." The two men turned around and made their way down from the plateau along a gradual slope. After a few minutes, they reached a small encampment of camouflaged tents and mesh netting lean-to structures. A few company-owned SUVs and large MRAP vehicles were parked here or there, as well as several old pickup trucks with mounted machine guns. A total of thirteen people were currently occupying the camp, most of them seated around a small fire over which a meal was being cooked. These men were local guerrillas and insurgents wearing a mix of traditional Afghan and modern Western clothing for tactical purposes. Shemagh scarves obscured their entire heads save for their eyes. These men were former Afghan soldiers and Taliban, persuaded by Meyer's charm and charisma to cast down their old beliefs and join the ideological coalition known as Phoenix.

First to approach Meyer was an older man with a thick beard and wrinkled features. He had a more conservative choice of dress than his compatriots, wearing a pair of grey kameez pants and a white shalwar, over which was an olive flak jacket and a bandolier of ammunition. "Hello again, Mr. Magician," he greeted, taking Meyer's hand and shaking it, "or shall I call you Alan Meyer?"

Meyer smirked. "Only in private and when no one else can hear you, Murad."

"Indeed." Murad walked with the two men through the camp, arms crossed over his chest. "Some of my soldiers are uneasy. They question whether or not this 'Phoenix' is worth abiding by."

"There's no need to have doubts, Murad," Meyer assured. "Are all the resources we gave you not convincing enough?"

"When I was young, the Americans came here to help us fight off the Russians. Just like you, they gave us the weapons and resources we needed, but some of us realized that they were trying to change and control us. How do we know you are not playing the same game with us?"

"I am a liberator, not a conqueror. I'm trying to free you from your corrupt leaders and all others like them. In fact," Meyer looked down at his timepiece, confirming that his window of opportunity was fast approaching, "in a few minutes, you'll get to watch me prove that we stand for the same goals and against the same enemies." He turned and casually strode over to the edge of a ridge not far from the camp, ushering the small group after him.

"Get ready for this," Erik whispered to Murad. "I don't think you'll be disappointed."

Passing the top of the ridge, the posse found itself overlooking a large gully with a dirt road running through it. Off to their right was a distant cloud of dust that billowed into the air, created by the approaching convoy of Humvees that clearly weren't from Deckard, Inc.. Meyer peered through a pair of binoculars to get a better view of the vehicles. There were five in all, three of which had heavy machine guns mounted on their roofs, manned by soldiers who swiveled around in their turrets at random times. In a minute from now, the convoy would be passing by and falling right into the trap that had been set for it.

Meyer pulled a small radio transceiver from a coat pocket and turned it on before holding it up to his ear. "Dragon actual, do you copy? This is the Magician, over."

_"This is Dragon actual,"_ a masculine voice with an English-South African accent crackled through the static. _"I copy, over."_

"Excellent. Have you jammed their radio signal yet, over?" Meyer inquired.

_"Yes, sir, we have. All that's left is for you to stir the hornet's nest, over."_

"Roger that, Dragon actual. Just make sure to stay put until after the nest has been stirred, over and out." Meyer switched off the transceiver and pocketed it in exchange for a detonator. His fingers wrapped around it in preparation as the Humvees drew closer, now passing right by the position of the onlookers who observed them.

_Three. Two. One._

At the right moment, he squeezed the trigger. Almost instantly, the vehicle leading the convoy and the one at the rear were suddenly consumed by what could have very well been small volcanoes erupting from underneath them. Dirt, metal debris and fire were sent high into the air and were accompanied by a loud _boom_ that traveled for nearly a kilometer. Murad and his militants were caught off guard by the explosions and wavered from the shock wave. Meyer and Graven ignored it and continued to watch as if nothing had happened.

As clouds of black smoke rose from the charred remains of the destroyed Humvees, the surviving vehicles fanned out and halted. While the gunner of the last surviving Humvee with a machine gun scanned the gully for the perpetrators of the explosions, the doors of the vehicles opened each birthed a soldier wearing US Army-issued comabt gear and uniforms. They were shouting orders to one another as they took cover and tried to identify who it was that had attacked them, weapons at the ready.

The ground along both slopes of the gully seemed to come alive as the camouflaged lids of nearly two dozen spider holes flew open. From these holes came fully armed Deckard Security contractors, their own combat uniforms colored to mimic the dry and dusty environment. They mercilessly unleashed all they had on their unsuspecting quarry, shooting at them with assault rifles, light machine guns, grenade and rocket launchers. The sound of automatic weapons mixed with exploding shells and warheads was almost deafening to the point that Murad, Graven and the other insurgents had to cover their ears to drown out the painful ruckus. Some of the ambushed soldiers were quickly cut down as they were struck repeatedly by incoming rounds, while others had the chance to hide behind the vehicles and return fire, scoring a few direct hits on their attackers with their own weapons. Their luck was short-lived, however, as hiding from the gunmen on one side of the gully exposed them to those on the other. Soon enough, the gunfire ceased, and there was nothing but silence for a few minutes.

The PMCs climbed out of their spider holes and jogged down the slippery slopes to inspect the carnage they had created. The bodies of the grunts they had killed lay strewn about on the ground, their faces frozen and blood leaking from their fatal bullet wounds. Most of them were men, though there were a few women as well. Meyer, who had just ventured down into the gully with his company, began clapping his gloved hands in a slow, dramatic fashion.

"Well done, ladies and gentlemen," he lauded loudly, "well done indeed. Have we suffered any casualties?"

"We have four dead and two wounded!" one medic called out.

"Tend to their wounds. I want the dead loaded into the vehicles on the double; we'll inform their families and arrange funerals as soon as possible."

"Aye, sir!"

While Erik used his satellite phone to contact the planes at the airport, and Murad stared at the desolation with visible shock and disbelief, two contractors approached Alan side by side. As the Deckard Inc. CEO removed his sunglasses, they in turn took off their ballistic helmets and protective goggles, allowing their employer to view their faces. The taller man with the grenade launcher had sharp features with dark butch-cut hair, a full goatee, and a scar across his right cheekbone. He was the field commander of Deckard Security's Dragon unit, Tom Rodin. His right-hand man, Charles Burke, was shorter with a soul patch and deep laugh lines on his face. His haircut was even shorter than Rodin's and sported a short Mohawk cutting through the middle of his head.

"You've helped drive it deep today," Meyer said. "Our fallen comrades have been avenged, and for that I am grateful."

Rodin smiled. "Our pleasure, Chairman."

"All in a day's work, boss," Burke said with a smug grin, putting emphasis on his Australian accent.

A nearby rustling caught the three men's attention. Next to one of the Humvees was a still-living army trooper, staring at them as he gagged on his own blood from a bullet had torn through his throat. Before the commandos could respond, Meyer drew a high-caliber revolver from his coat and shot the man between the eyes, killing him instantly. Everyone else in the gully froze at the sound of the discharging weapon, relaxing only when they realized that it had not come from a foe.

Meyer holstered his gun and looked back at Rodin and Burke, quipping, "You missed one," before excusing himself from their presence and approaching Murad again. "So, is there any more reason to doubt me now?"

The militant leader carefully scrutinized everything around him once more before lightly shaking his head. "Not anymore," he replied.

"Good." Reaching into another coat pocket, Meyer produced a camcorder and handed it to one of the insurgents.

"What is that for?"

"This, my friend, is for you. I hope you can act as easily as your men can film."

* * *

**Deckard, Inc. Headquarters**

"So, Philippe, how are you adjusting?"

"I shouldn't have to dignify that with a response, _Lowell_."

"If I were you, I'd be very thankful that I'm still breathing. Between you and me, I considered you to be somewhat of a friend all those years ago."

Philippe Broulet sat at a desk in an isolated corner of the engineering research laboratory, dressed in a white lab coat like the rest of the scientists. Next to him stood Professor Tyron, his hands clasped behind his back. On the desk was an advanced computer system with multiple holographic screens and a digital keyboard. On the screens themselves were blueprints of various technological devices. The virtual designs included a full-body wetsuit with white markings electronics installed into the fabric and a headset with a built-in visor.

"What I don't understand," Philippe way saying as he typed the keys to add another program to his in-computer diagrams, "is why you're doing this, Tyron. Waldo told everyone, including us, what Meyer was going to do with our research. We deserted so that our work wouldn't be used for unethical purposes. What made you turn a blind eye to that raving lunatic's madness? Did it have something to do with _her_? You always were pretty jealous of Waldo."

Philippe though he could see the anger in Tyron's eyes, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. "I have my reasons, but it's mostly for science," he replied.

"What do mean 'for science'?"

"I mean that I don't share the same weakness as you. Ethics should _never_ get in the way of scientific inquiry or experimentation." Tyron walked over to a small table near the desk. Its surface had a bright white interface much like a touchscreen, though somewhat more sophisticated. He touched the center with his fingers and jerked his hand up. From the screen came a translucent blue hologram of the headset on the computer, floating in midair over the table. He touched and manipulated the three-dimensional image like a real solid object, placing it over his head and wearing it.

"Anyway, I want to make twelve of these. Make base prototypes first and improve from there. We have a three-dimensional printer and all the necessary materials." Tyron removed the three-dimensional image of the headset from his skull and deleted it, ignoring the cold glare Philippe was giving him as the elderly professor made for the door. He exited the laboratory and promptly returned to his own. When he arrived, the sight of his supercomputer in the middle of the room made him smile. As far as he was concerned, this machine was the epitome of his accomplishments and the embodiment of his genius—a genius matched only by that of Alan Meyer.

He approached the control terminals and found Michael looking over a video distorted by colorful snow. The young researcher noticed him mentor and smiled, standing up to meet him at eye level. "Hey there, Professor," he said.

"Hello again, Michael," Tyron returned, acknowledging his apprentice with a small wave of his hand.

"Is Professor Broulet settling in well?" Davidson asked curiously.

"What? Oh, yes, he's doing just fine. In fact, he had the motivation to start working right away." Davidson's question had caught Tyron off guard, much to his dismay and self-agitation. As with all other employees with clearance below Level-Five, Davidson had been fed a fabricated story regarding the circumstances of Philippe's cooperation. According to official records, Tyron had called and asked for his help in developing a new means of security for the Second City. Being good friends, Philippe was quick to agree and made it to Switzerland from France in less than forty-eight hours. Davidson was a big fan of Broulet's work, having read about him in his studies back in Massachusetts. Tyron realized he would have to be very careful with both of them and make sure they did not interact too much.

"That's awesome," said the junior scientist. "So he'll be making the RTSA equipment for us, right?"

Tyron nodded. "In due course, yes."

"Not that I would doubt you, Professor, but are you sure this theory of yours will work?"

Tyron laughed with amusement, stepping forward and securing his arm over Davidson's shoulders in a friendly manner. "I understand your skepticism, my boy, But please, try not to be so closed-minded. After all, we have created the world's most powerful quantum computer, and with an entire artificial world inside of it, no less. We were able to do these things because we thought outside the box and didn't let traditional notions of reality stop us. By the way, have we been able to trace those virtual phenomena back to their point of origin?"

"Well...sort of," was Davidson's answer. Two days ago, presence of five foreign entities had been discovered inside the Second City. They had nothing to fight them off with except for entering programs to alter the physical terrain of the world itself, successfully removing a few of them in the process. Though dealt with, they had taken copies of some of the supercomputer's encrypted files. Tyron suspected it to be the work of some clever hackers who had created avatars for infiltration. "I wasn't actually able to tap into their source on the network, but I did get a small fragment of data. The trouble is that it's very corrupted, and it may require some intense decrypting."

"Could I have a look at it?"

Davidson sat back down in his chair and rapidly type away at the futuristic keyboard, bringing up a video file which he played. The graphics were heavily distorted by snow, and the audio was even worse. Nevertheless, Tyron could make out what appeared to be a figure in the middle of some kind of video log. He could hear bits and pieces of what the person was saying as it skipped and stuttered.

_"Dia...Jere...Bel...Kad...Aca...my, eighth-gr...st...nt, Octo...Ninth. A few...ago, I...hun...fo...arts to...ding...mini...bots. I...any...nd he...I could...I decided...rumm...scrap...the aba...factory...fa...om...ac...demy._

* * *

**_Please review, follow, or favorite. Best wishes, 226 :)_**


	4. Miss Einstein

**_Hey, friends! Here we go with chapter four! Oh, but first, I recently added myself to Deviantart under the same username, and I plan to put this fanfic on there too. Trouble is that I can't seem to upload them and make them look just like any other piece of literature on said website. Would anyone, assuming that some of my viewers are artists of Deviantart, care to share with me how I can make this possible? Also, I was hoping to find someone with exceptional skills as an artist who would accept a commission of my OCs for a low price (once I have massed enough money) or for free. I'm still not sure how to do that either. You can give me tips in your reviews or send me a message._**

_Disclaimer: I'm ashamed to admit it, but I don't own Code Lyoko in any way at all. It's a bummer, but I can live with it._

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

"Okay, _I_ equals two fifths times...times _r_...Err...No, no, sorry, I forgot the mass; let me start over. So anyway, _I_ equals..."

Last night, Jeremy had been up for several hours to finish designing the Cortex vehicle. The morning after, he slept through the blaring alarm of his clock and needed to be awoken by Jim ten minutes later. Despite a somewhat rejuvenating hot shower and healthy breakfast, he was still tired from the lack of sleep, evident by the bags under his eyes and state of mind akin to that of a zombie. His friends and girlfriend had noticed this, especially when he had temporarily dozed off in the cafeteria. It was now physics class, and despite his fatigue, the leader of Team Lyoko volunteered to show the other students an example of classical mechanics. Ms. Hertz had asked for the formula and step-by-step process for finding the measurement of Earth's rotational inertia, a relatively simple problem for someone like him to solve.

Unfortunately, that same problem was becoming less and less simple.

While Jeremy could usually recall and solve complicated equations on any day of the week, today was different. With part of his brain still caught in the twilight zone between wakefulness and sleep, he was having trouble focusing on the formula and remembering all the steps, and started tripping on a few of his words mid-sentence. He had just finished erasing everything he had written on the chalkboard to begin anew, something he almost never had to do before. He could feel the teacher staring him down with disappointed eyes and the students whispering remarks about him behind his back. From where they sat, Aelita, Ulrich and Odd were pained to watch him struggle and make a fool of himself, but were unable to do anything without drawing attention to themselves and making things worse.

"Would anyone care to lend a hand and help Jeremy complete the equation?" a crestfallen Ms. Hertz asked. For Aelita, this was a chance to save her boyfriend from the spotlight of humiliation. She prepared to raise her hand, but before she could get her arm up into the air, someone else beat her to the proverbial punch. "Ah, Laura, be a dear and come show us how to solve this problem."

Ms. Hertz had called on Laura Gauthier, a transfer student from the United States. She had been added to Kadic's student body on rather short notice yesterday, meeting with Mr. Delmas in the late afternoon. She had apparently moved to Paris with her father, a corporate worker who, in his line of work, traveled often. No one had really noticed her until the beginning of class when Ms. Hertz had formally introduced her. As far as outside appearances went, Laura seemed to be a relatively ordinary sixteen-year-old teenager. She was about the same height as Sissi, with smooth fair skin, a face and complexion well within the golden ratio of attractiveness, waist-length blonde hair with a small bun in at the back of her head, eyes with a lovely shade of blue, and a sexy athletic figure similar to Yumi's. Her fashion sense was fairly typical of young women in her age group; a white, collarless blazer over a blouse with thin horizontal black and white bars, a purple miniskirt and black flats.

Flashing the teacher a courteous smile, she got up and made her way to the front of the room, passing Jeremy as he shuffled back to his desk in defeat. He took his seat next to Aelita, who attempted to comfort him by reaching over and grasping his hand with her own. Her boyfriend resisted, shrinking back into his chair to avoid the contact. He was already sulking. Aelita understood that there was no getting through to him at the moment and gave up, returning her attention to the board while the new girl grabbed a piece of chalk and started writing.

"So," Laura began, speaking fluent French in spite of her obvious foreign accent, "I'll start with the equation: _I_ equals two fifths times the mass—_m_—times the radius—_r_—squared. We fill in the variables with Earth's mass as five-point-nine-seventy-two-nineteen times ten raised to the twenty-fourth power in kilograms, and its radius roughly six thousand, three hundred seventy-eight-point-one kilometers. Multiplying these while keeping a gravitational force of six-point-sixty-seven times ten to the negative eleventh power, we get an answer what can be rounded up to nine-point-seventy-two times ten to the thirty-seventh power per kilogram per mass squared. This means that the velocity of Earth's moment of inertia is approximately nine-point-seventy-two kilometers per second. Is that all right, Ms. Hertz?"

For a moment, Ms. Hertz and every student in the room was speechless. None of them had ever seen someone speed through a mathematical equation like that, let alone one meant for science. Even Aelita and Jeremy weren't that fast, the latter feeling all the more humbled. Ulrich just stared at Laura with his mouth hanging open, while Odd made an approving nod of his head accompanied by a devious smile, finding the combination of Laura's looks and brains arousing.

After what could have been more than half a minute, it was Ms. Hertz who broke the silence. "Fine job, Ms. Gauthier," she said, lightly clapping her hands, "a very fine job indeed."

_...XXX..._

There were few times in his life that Jeremy had been this embarrassed about something. As if choking up in front of Aelita and his peers wasn't bad enough, the new student had upstaged him in such a way that no one else could. It was for this reason that the instant class had ended, the ashamed young man avoided both Aelita and his friends, seeking asylum at one of the benches outside. At least all of this had given him the boost in energy that he needed. He felt it best to sulk in relative solitude, even if it was for just a few minutes. Knowing the others, they would certainly track him down and try to comfort him. It may have been the last scrap of his pride thinking this, but at the moment, he would prefer they left him be.

Odd was the first to arrive, climbing up between the double-column positioned directly behind the bench. He sat on top of the raised support and sat back against the left pillar with both hands behind his head. "Come on, Einstein, quit sulking already!" he ordered. Jeremy would have taken him seriously had he not noticed his friend grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "It's not _that_ terrible to be humiliated in front of your girlfriend."

Jeremy rolled his eyes, knowing that the addition of insult to injury was more or less playful banter on Odd's part. Still, it did sort of chip away at him even more._ I knew I could count on _you_ for support, _he thought.

"Don't listen to him, Jeremy." Aelita power-walked up to the bench, followed closely by Ulrich. She must have overheard Odd's snide remark because she was throwing him one of her rare yet intimidating death glares which sent faint shivers down the Italian boy's spine. She sat down next to her lover while Ulrich chose to stand behind the bench next to Odd. "One's number of neurons doesn't really matter," the girl with marshmallow-pink hair continued, speaking with a soft, assuring tone of voice.

Jeremy sighed. "Yeah it does. Anyway, that calculus was easy; I just couldn't focus, that's all."

"Yeah, that explains it," Odd quipped.

"Odd, I was up all night finishing the virtual vehicle," Jeremy shot back, "so excuse me for being tired in the morning. And just in case you've forgotten, that's the vehicle that will save you from being squashed the next time you go to the Cortex."

"What's this about a 'cortex'?"

The four Lyoko warriors were caught off guard when the realized that Laura stood but two meters away from them. She was carefully observing them, a fierce sense of curiosity radiating from her. She must have heard what they were saying. Aelita eyed her warily, not having forgotten how she had made Jeremy feel even more embarrassed in class earlier.

_Great, she's snobbish_ and _nosy._

Jeremy took the lead, initiating the routine of denial with the first and foremost strategy—playing dumb. "Uh...nothing."

"You don't have to hide anything from me," Laura persisted. "I'm sorry to eavesdrop, but I heard you talking about programming a vehicle for something called a 'cortex'. Is that part of some online game?"

It didn't surprise Jeremy that Laura was not backing off or buying into such a feeble attempt at shaking her off. After showing off in physics, she had proven that she was quite intelligent, and it was fair to say that she was eager to expand said intelligence. He could see in her sapphire eyes a great thirst for knowledge that pushed her to quench it. She was clearly a scientific individual, so it made sense that she would be intrigued upon hearing bits and pieces of the gang's prior conversation, no matter how dark the waters she was sailing into were. Fortunately, she had made an incorrect assumption regarding the context of the topic, and Jeremy knew he could use that to his advantage. Laura didn't seem like the kind of person that would forget this later in the day, so a consistent false story with a pinch of truth would be necessary in keeping her from prying in the wrong places.

"Actually, yes, that _is_ what we're talking about," Jeremy nodded his head. "An online game that we've been developing for a while."

Laura beamed with excitement. "I knew it! I love video games. Well, I don't really like playing them, but _programming_ them is really fun. I'm really good at computer science, you see, among other fields. You could say we're alike in a lot of ways, Jeremy, though I guess our speed is one exception." With that, Laura made a small wave goodbye and strolled off, not noticing the suggestive wink Odd was giving her, or the visible offense of Jeremy's face.

Aelita snorted. "Who does she think she is anyway? How arrogant do you have to be to just butt into any interesting discussion you hear?"

"Well how about that; another Jeremy," Ulrich commented.

"Except this one wears a bra. I guess this means you're not the only Miss Einstein around here, Aelita," Odd added.

Odd's playful jokes didn't usually get to Aelita. However, this one in particular seemed to strike a few nerves in the young Lyoko princess. She wanted to avoid thinking about why it annoyed her, yet she already knew the answer. "Einstein" was Jeremy's trademark nickname, and as such, she was sometimes referred to as "Miss Einstein", or "Mrs. Einstein". Shamed as Aelita was to admit it, the thought of a smart female student of Kadic besides herself being referred to as another "Miss Einstein" had her feeling rather hot under the collar.

_...XXX..._

The foursome was gathered at the end of one of the library's lengthy wood table, sharing it with other students who were busy studying for upcoming exams or working on assignments. Aelita and Jeremy were seated beside each other as always, with Odd and Ulrich across from them. Like their classmates, they too had their hand-written notes and a few open books and digital devices here or there in front of them, making an effort to focus on their normal lives if for only a brief time. Since the return of XANA at the beginning of the week, the warriors had been falling behind in some of their classes, chiefly from being absent during trips to the factory. They looked over their work in relative silence, Jeremy especially. Still upset about his slip-up in physics, he repeatedly wrote down several complex equations in his notebook, looking depressed all the while.

A minute before the ringing of the late bell, the gang's study session was momentarily interrupted by the arrival of Yumi, who had just come from social studies and looked to be in high spirits this day. "Hey, you guys," she offered a casual greeting, receiving acknowledgment as she sat down next to Ulrich. She noticed Jeremy's glum expression. "You look down in the dumps today. What happened?"

"Einstein here met his match," Odd jested, instigating a roll of the eyes from his intelligent friend.

Yumi was visibly astonished. "Really? Who would that be?"

"Laura Gauthier, the new girl from America," Ulrich revealed, gesturing to the far right. Yumi traced the path of Ulrich's finger with her eyes until they fell upon the middle of the table's length where Laura sat. The blonde girl was preoccupied with something she was reading off a white iPad, scribbling words onto paper every few seconds. She didn't look like an intellectual to Yumi, but she took her boyfriend's word for it.

Groaning with frustration, Jeremy erected his posture in the chair to address his comrades, half-scowling as he said, "You know, as much as I love seeing you three in such good moods, do you think we could talk about something else? How about the Cortex?"

"Sure, I guess," Odd said with a shrug. "Anything new to report?"

"As a matter of fact, there is," Jeremy replied. "The last time we were in the Cortex, Aelita was able to access a few scraps of data liked to a memory unit, and that got me thinking about the Replikas. You guys remember those, don't you?"

"Yes," the three other warriors replied simultaneously.

"Good, then as I'm sure you already know, XANA created his Replikas using the keys of Lyoko to make copies of each sector, storing them in separate supercomputers around the world. At first, I had assumed that the Cortex was part of a matrix made up of the other Replikas before they were destroyed. However, some the data we got from it contained programming instructions that are a lot older than anything found in Lyoko.

"Apart from that, I learned that the Cortex was finished and activated at the beginning of the week on Monday—the same day XANA came back. This means that this virtual world existed before XANA's rebirth and before he was set free, but it wasn't completed until recently. In any case, it had to have been created by another kind of quantum computer, one besides ours in the factory."

The other warriors were now very interested in what Jeremy was sharing with them, especially Aelita. "_Another_ quantum computer?" she parroted. "The only one we know had that kind of power is the one my father made."

Jeremy knew exactly where Aelita would be going with this. She knew that he had promised to prove Franz Hooper's innocence in this, though part of her was still unsure about it. "Like I said before, it's uncertain if Hooper was involved in any way. As a future scientist, I can't make assumptions in the absence of evidence."

"Except for that picture of him. That counts as evidence."

"Well, there's only one way to find out, and that's by going back there," Jeremy declared. "Once the schoolday is over, we'll sneak away to the factory. Yumi, can you convince your brother to walk home by himself this afternoon?"

"Sure, I'll just tell him Ulrich and I will be going out together," the Japanese girl said.

"Then it's settled; we're going back to the Cortex."

* * *

**Neuilly-sur-Seine**

The trip from Spain to France had been a tiring one for Damon. He had walked for almost two kilometers before reaching the train station in Madrid, paying for a ticket to Paris and spending the next fifteen hours in a stiff leather bench seat as the locomotive barreled across the countryside. When he woke up, the train had arrived in Boulogne-Billancourt, not far from the old house that Waldo had bought. For a while he had considered dropping by there to see if anyone was still there, though he feared what he may find. Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, he grabbed breakfast from a cafe and hailed a cab. He was dropped off once he reached Neuilly, continuing his journey to Philippe's home on foot.

Damon was now strolling down the sidewalk at a relatively inconspicuous pace, carrying his duffel bag over his shoulder. He had the brim of his baseball cap at an angle while his sunglasses rested firmly on the bridge of his nose, keeping a good portion of his face hidden. Some people were gawking at him as he passed by, likely because of his somewhat old and faded attire. Whether or not that was true didn't bother him in the least. He was too busy enjoying his surroundings to care. It felt so amazing yet alien to be in a vibrant and economically sound community rather than that awful slum he had left behind.

He steered his path to the right upon encountering a four-way intersection and continued down the sidewalk. According to the address book he had looked at earlier, the Broulet residence was only two houses away. Drawing closer to his destination with every step, Damon suddenly took notice of several people staring at something from the sidewalk on the other side of the road. He couldn't see what they were looking at, as whatever it was was on his own side was obscured by a tall hedge along the property line of the house he was passing. If the book was to be taken seriously, it was apparently his old friend's house.

Philippe's home had to be really fancy if random pedestrians took the time to stop and stare at it. What Damon didn't notice until he got closer was the fact that several police cruisers and two black unmarked cars were parked on the curb in front of where his friend's house should be. Damon's optimism was replaced by confusion and worry at the sight of the vehicles. His pace quickened into a jog, desiring a closer look and a clear view of the Broulet household. Immediately after passing the threshold of the hedge, he saw the tall white house sitting in the middle of a healthy green lawn. That did not concern him so much as the steel barricades and police tape lining the perimeter of the property.

There were probably less than a dozen uniformed officers on the premises, assisting forensics and crime scene investigators in their search for anything suspicious in or outside of the house. A bulky young man with a shaved head and trembling old woman were standing in the driveway as they were questioned separately by two policemen. They had to be Philippe's wife and son, Laurette and François. They looked grief-stricken and confused from what Damon could make out.

_Oh, God, don't tell me..._

Damon knew better than to cross over the barriers, but he wanted to find out exactly what was going on. If his fears had come true, he needed to hear it from someone else. He walked up to the edge of the yellow tape in front of him and called out to the nearest person on the other side. "Excuse me, ma'am? Ma'am? Yes, you—could you come here, please?"

The individual he had beckoned for was a slender young woman who was dressed differently from the police, wearing a loose black jacket over a white shirt, slim denim jeans, and a pair of dark sneakers that would be more suited for taking a cross-country walk with. She had dark chocolate-brown hair cut into an angled bob. Cold disinterest appeared to be the default expression of her pretty face. As she approached Damon, he realized that she was as tall as he was, not needing to crane his head down to look into her hazel eyes.

"Can I help you, sir?" she questioned him, her voice icy and impatient.

"Uh," Damon paused, feeling his words catch on his tongue, "what's going on here?"

"I don't think that's any of your business at the moment," the intimidating woman replied matter-of-factly. "If you want to know so badly, you're more than welcome to read about it in tomorrow's newspaper."

"But this is the home of Professor Philippe Broulet, right?"

"Again—I don't think it's your business, but it is. You know him?"

"I'm his friend, Da—er...Bridger."

"Well Bridger, as his friend, you should know that the professor has been declared missing since early this morning. His family has shared their suspicions of a possible case of kidnapping...are you going to be okay?"

A detective standing by the garage turned his attention away from Philippe's distraught family and hollered, "Agent Dubois! We need you over here!"

"Coming!" the woman called back. She looked back at Damon for the last time. "I have to go right now. I'll see you later, Bridger." She spun around on her heal and trotted across the dew-covered lawn to meet with the inspector.

Damon was currently fighting the urge to panic. It took him a few seconds to comprehend what he had just said. From what he could process, he had traveled over a thousand kilometers across Europe by high-speed train to speak with a person he had been unable to reach—a risky decision in its own right—only to find that this friend of his had apparently been abducted.

Was the corporation finally exacting its revenge after all these years? Not likely. If they wanted to round up and cull the deserters, they would have done so a long time ago. There was also another factor to consider—some of the scientists that had vanished were never affiliated with Deckard or Carthage to begin with, so there had to be more to this than simple retribution. Besides, given the expertise of each missing scientist, Deckard wouldn't waste time on a ransom or senseless vengeance. They would almost certainly take advantage of their captive's knowledge.

Damon started sprinting down the sidewalk as fast as his legs could carry him. He wasn't thinking too far ahead, but he knew some action had to be taken if what he had suspected to be correct regarding Deckard's agenda. The first thing he had to do was find a place to stay for a while, perhaps a hotel or apartment for rent. Tomorrow, he would go looking for the supercomputer and, to some extent, Waldo and Aelita. He needed that machine if he was going to put an end to all of this.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

Once the final bell rang, the Lyoko warriors left their respective classes posthaste to rendezvous with one another and sneak away to the factory. As they exited the science building and walked under the archway, Aelita, Odd and Jeremy had fallen ten paces behind Yumi and Ulrich due to student traffic in the hallways. They were about to catch up with their oblivious friends when they heard someone call for Jeremy by name. The three youths stopped and turned around to see Laura eagerly trotting up to them. "I was hoping to talk with you again before but I never got the chance," she was saying. "Are you and your friends going to work on that game of yours?"

Jeremy stifled an exasperated groan, remembering the farce he had crafted to keep Laura from sticking her nose too deeply into the business concerning the virtual world. "There's no hiding anything from you, is there? Yes, we are, but I'm afraid it's still in an early stage in development right now. I don't think you'd be too interested until a little later."

"Oh," she said downheartedly before perking up and continuing with, "well, like I was saying earlier, just let me know if you want some help in the future. I did say I was good with computers and stuff like that."

_Damn, this girl is persistent._

From the moment Laura had engaged them in conversation, Aelita'a good mood gave way to a feeling of resentment and distrust towards this young woman. The Lyoko princess hid her emotions behind a mask save for furrowing eyebrows and tightly pursed lips. She felt like telling Laura to just stop talking to Jeremy and get lost. This troubled her, as she could not remember harboring such sour regards towards another person. She avoided speaking her mind, and politely as possible, though with a hint of dismissive indifference, said, "That's very kind of you, but our project is very top-secret for now, you see. It wouldn't be good for us if our idea got out and was patented by somebody else. But I promise that we'll keep you posted."

"Okay," Laura replied in English. From the tone of her voice and the false smile she was maintaining, she too appeared to be holding back emotions. Had she seen through her mask? Aelita opted to give it no thought as she watched the nosy girl turn around and walk back the way she came. The pinkette turned her attention to Jeremy and Odd, both of whom looked confused and somewhat unnerved. They had felt the powerful tension between the two girls, yet were unable to make much sense of it.

Odd huffed. "Incredible. This is the second time she's talked to you," he looked at Jeremy, "and ignored me today. She could have a thing for you, Einstein."

"Or she just likes to show off," Aelita said dryly. She continued on after Yumi and Ulrich with the two boys in tow, pretending that Odd's jest had not bothered her. It had never occurred to her before that someone besides herself may have found her boyfriend sexually attractive. Jeremy wasn't exactly the ideal specimen of a man in the eyes of Kadic's female students, but that didn't matter to Aelita, especially since that was not why she had fallen for him in the first place. She was attracted to his intelligence and warm personality. The thought of Laura having similar taste was disturbing.

After the three warriors regrouped with Yumi and Ulrich in the park, they climbed down into the sewer one by one, riding their scooters and skateboards all the way to the runoff. Once there, they emerged from the manhole on the bridge. On their way down to the scanners, the elevator stopped midway in its descent, allowing Jeremy to disembark and enter the lab. The thick doors slid shut and locked behind him as the lift transported Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi and Odd to the scanner room. Dispensing with any and all pleasantries, the four teens promptly exited the elevator and stepped into the cylindrical machines.

_"Are you ready?"_ Jeremy asked through the intercom.

"All set," Aelita answered.

_"Then get ready." _ The doors of each scanner slid shut on Jeremy's narration, encasing their occupants. They then experienced the familiar feeling of spinning around as the scanners filled with bright light and a loud hum. _"Scanner, Odd. Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Ulrich. Virtualization."_

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

William sat at the far end of the rec room's extra-large couch, slouching back into the firm cushions with a pair of earbuds on. His eyes were closed as he gently nodded his head to the beat of the music his iPod was playing for him. He had just purchased some new songs by the Subdigitals from iTunes and was taking advantage of his free time to enjoy every last dubstep note. It also served to block out the sounds and disturbances of the environment around him, especially the loud and aggressive foosball match between Nicholas and Herb. Around him were classmates like Sissi, Emily, Milly and Tamiya, going about their own business be it watching TV, reading or simply relaxing.

Laura cautiously stepped into the room, half-uncomfortable about being there in the first place. This wasn't the kind of environment she typically exposed herself to, preferring to study and learn more in her free time rather than engage in such trivial pursuits like playing games or socializing with others, unless of course it was to her benefit or if she shared common ground with someone. She believed she had something in common with Jeremy, and wanted to get to know him and that game of his better. He had been giving her the cold shoulder for most of the day, though something like that wasn't about to deter her from getting the answers she wanted.

Unfortunately, she could not locate him, as though he and his posse had disappeared off the face of the earth. She had heard through the grapevine that William Dunbar and Elizabeth Delmas were pretty close to Jeremy and his friends. She had received some negative vibes from Sissi since this morning but hadn't met William yet, so approaching him seemed ideal. Shortly after entering the rec room, Laura noticed him on the sofa in what appeared to be the middle of a nap. She crossed the room and gave him a gentle tap on the shoulder.

Feeling something touch his right shoulder, William's eyes flew wide open. The first thing he saw was a pretty blonde girl standing next to him, returning his gaze with a curious look marred on her face. He recognized her as the new transfer student that a few of his male classmates had been talking about. What could she have wanted with him?

"Excuse me, but you're William Dunbar, right?" she asked.

"Uh...," William quickly yanked his earbuds out and stuffed the into his pocket with his iPod while standing up to speak with Laura properly, "yes, yes I am."

Laura smiled. "Cool, so that makes you one of Jeremy Belpois' friends?"

"On some days, I guess."

"Do you know anything about their project?"

"Project? What are you talking about?"

"They told me they were working on some kind of top-secret online game," Laura told him. "When the last class ended, I saw them walking off like they were in a hurry to get somewhere. After that, it's like they just disappeared from school."

"Oh,_ really_?"

Laura nodded before unconsciously tucking some of her hair behind her ears. "I wanted to see this project for myself earlier, but they wouldn't let me. It's not that I want to steal the idea for myself or anything like that—I'm just really into computer programming. If you're their friend, do you think they'd led me in on it if you were to put in a good word?"

Laura's words allowed something to connect in William's mind. He doubted the existence of this game she was obviously obsessed with, but regardless, she had unknowingly informed him that the Lyoko warriors were up to something and had neglected to include him or mention anything. Did they still not trust him even after the incident in the Cortex?

Jeremy's last words on the subject had been "we'll think about it". Had they even considered it at all since they had discussed it? Come to think of it, there had been a XANA attack the other day and not one of them had spoken of it to him until well after the crisis was over. It was obvious that they still weren't keen on letting him back into their group.

"Maybe I can, but like they said, it's a secret," William said. "Sorry to cut it short, but I've gotta go somewhere." He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, trudging past Laura to the doorway before stopping to look back at her. "Trust me, though, you're not the only one who feels left out." William then walked out at a faster-than-normal pace and was gone.

Laura's interest piqued yet again. From what she could perceive, William had become angry about something. Did it have to do with Jeremy and his friends? And what was that about her not being the only one left out of something? She had a feeling that if she followed him, she might get a few of her questions answered. She tailed after him at a distance, making sure she was not noticed. He appeared to be walking with the same haste and sense of purpose as Jeremy's friends had been before.

* * *

**Digital Sea**

The _Skidbladnir_ exited the wormhole of a hub and continued cruising through the calm void of virtual water. The trip this time had been mostly quiet, the warriors preoccupied with keeping an eye out for any potential ambush that could be waiting for them. Interestingly, they had yet to encounter any of XANA's aquatic monsters that used to attack them in their attempts to infiltrate the Replikas in the past. It was Jeremy's theory that XANA presently lacked the ability to conjure his familiars in the Digital Sea. Even if he could, the threat of that happening ended once the _Skid_ reached in imposing structure that was the Cortex's outer body.

"Cortex in sight," Aelita reported from the sub's helm.

_"Perfect. Head to the entrance lock,"_ Jeremy said. _"I'll unlock it for you when you get there."_

Aelita maneuvered the _Skid_ over the Replika's surface towards, weaving through the forest of jutting spikes. Once they were in front of the sealed portal, she flipped a switch to make the submersible's body change into its vertical mode and waited as Jeremy hacked the firewall. In no time the clawed gateway opened and allowed the craft to enter. Inside, the _Skid_ surfaced and rose high into the air to meet the Cortex's floating superstructure.

* * *

**Deckard, Inc. Headquarters**

The young Michael Davidson was nearly finished with his scan and inspection of the Second City's systems when an encircled red exclamation mark began flashing in the corner of one of the terminal's monitors. The three-dimensional map of the virtual world portrayed a red floating icon gradually approaching the main structure, housing four smaller icons in it. He knew this was not supposed to be happening, and after carefully scanning the object, understood that there was another intrusion underway.

"Uh...Professor! We have a problem!"

Professor Tyron turned his attention away from the supercomputer and to his protege, power-walking up to him at a speed that his aging body was comfortable with. He leaned over the younger man's shoulder to get a look at the monitors from his perspective. "What is it?"

"I just detected four unidentified virtual signatures and a really big one entering the space of the Second City," Michael reported. "It think we've been breached again."

"Deploy what countermeasures we have available."

"Oh yes, sir, of course," Michael's hands went straight to the keyboard and typed the keys in the correct sequence to trigger a change in the virtual environment's geography, hoping that it would disorient and delete the avatars if they progressed further towards the core and attempted to steal more data. "Launching defensive countermeasures."

* * *

**Cortex**

"Docking complete. Get ready to disembark." Aelita parked the Skid near the edge of the Cortex's landscape, locking it in a synchronous orbit with the terrestrial body as it rotated. She then hit a few buttons that made the avatars of the four young adults fade from existence and reappear on the surface of the Replika.

_"Okay, guys, here comes your new cab,"_ they heard Jeremy say. From out of thin air appeared the skeletal frame of a large object, which quickly took on a distinct shape as lays upon digital layer was added to it via computer information. When it was finished, the Lyoko warriors drank in the sight of their new awe-inspiring vehicle.

It had to be at least thirteen meters long and seven meters wide overall. The body was the smallest part, a sphere no larger than a compact car and lacking any visible doors or windows. From this small cab sprouted four separate axles and suspensions tipped with huge wheels and threaded tires measuring five meters in diameter and a meter-and-a-half thick, enough to make a professional monster truck driver green with envy. The color was mostly yellow with a mix of white stripes, dark-gray on the joints connecting the suspensions to the cab, and glowing blue circuitry running along the entire body.

_"I present to you the Cortexian Wheeled Spheroid Tecto-compatible Mega-multipod Vehicle, or MegaPod for short."_

While her friends stood back to admire the MegaPod in its entirety, Aelita decided to have a closer look, stepping forward until she was nearly up against one of the vehicle's monstrous tires. She unconsciously extended a small hand and stroked the grey hubcap as if it were some mighty yet gentle steed waiting to be ridden. While it was foolish to think the sensation would be anything like that of an automobile on Earth, the sound made by the quick contact was reminiscent of human flesh tapping against a thick metal surface. Jeremy had certainly outdone himself this time.

"So," she began to ask, "who's going to drive this thing?"

"ME!" Ulrich and Odd both exclaimed like giddy children. The two boys glared at one another once they understood that they wanted the exact same thing. Next to them, Yumi face-palmed herself, overwhelmed with exasperation from the display of petty male desires.

"I called it first!" Ulrich hissed.

"No, _I_ did!" Odd fired back at him.

_"Yumi will be the one who drives," _Jeremy's disembodied voice cut in.

Yumi shrugged, not caring if she drove or not, though allowed herself a nearly unnoticeable smile at the thought of this would-be privilege eating the boys up on the inside. Ulrich looked fine with it, but Odd was clearly devastated. "But...but why?" he asked dejectedly.

_"She's the only one who didn't ask,"_ Jeremy clarified. _"Besides, she's had more driving experience than any of you put together. Now get going before the Cortex starts changing or XANA sends his cavalry."_

The warriors stepped closer to the vehicle, silent except for Odd who was woefully mumbling to himself about how women always got to drive cool things before men. Once again the avatars vanished and this time reformed inside the MegaPod's cab. Yumi was in the front left seat with Aelita riding shotgun. Ulrich sat in back behind his girlfriend while Odd was positioned next to him And behind the Lyoko princess.

_"The controls are different from your car,"_ Jeremy was explaining to Yumi, _"but it's a little simpler and not so difficult get the hang of. If you've playing games like_ Galactic Destroyer_, you should know how to work it without any problems."_

Yumi pursed her lips in sudden confusion and frustration. "I've never played _Galactic Destroyer_."

_"Don't worry; it should be instinctual to some extent. I also programmed it to automatically adapt to the terrain."_

While Jeremy was talking, Aelita pressed one of the hexagon-shaped buttons on the seat console between her and Yumi, bringing up multiple holograms of varying size and shape that acted as a single heads-up display. Half of it was computer gibberish that the magenta-clad ninja could not interpret except for the first and third-person views of the outside environment, speedometer and odometer. Nevertheless, it was still rather complicated for her.

"If you say so," she said with an unsure tone of voice, slightly whelmed by all the excessive information she was receiving all at once.

Odd stopped pouting and leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on the shoulders of the ones the girls sat in. "You know, Yumi," he began, "I happen to be awesome at _Galactic Destroyer_, and a few other driving games like _Grand Theft Auto_ and _Mario Kart_. If you feel like it's too much, we can still switch."

Yumi responded by grabbing the two joysticks in front of her and shoved them forward. The tires spun and skidded on the ground for a moment before gaining traction, sending the MegaPod forward from zero to two hundred fifty-five kilometers per hour in just three seconds. The Lyoko warriors fell back in their respective seats from the rapid acceleration. Yumi swerved right to avoid crashing into a raised module and continued down an open path the width of a city block.

"Aw man, I'm gonna be sick!" Odd moaned as he clutched his seat.

"I hope you brought some barf bags, Jeremy!" Ulrich jested.

Veering away from another dead end, Yumi then faced the challenge of driving towards the core while safely navigating. Soon after arriving in the Cortex, its modular components began to rise, sink, split apart and join in random, unpredictable patterns. It was like a natural geological process on steroids. The Japanese girl made sure to drive over the modules that weren't moving and stayed level with the ones she had already passed over.

Turning left to avoid running into another dead end, Yumi steered around the Cortex's components that began to rise and sink around them. This was no coincidence by any measure. They were clearly not welcome in this Replika, and someone or something wanted them out. Luckily, the MegaPod was proving to be their saving grace. On the HUD was a scan of their immediate surroundings, apparently working at ten seconds or so ahead of real time. It was making predictions of what obstacles would appear and signalling to Yumi the ideal angle of her next turn or the speed she should be driving at. She was then showed an image depicting the ground ahead of them splitting apart and threatening to send Team Lyoko plummeting into the Digital Sea below.

"Hold on tight."

She secured a tighter grip on the throttles and pushed them all the way forward. Moving at maximum speed, the MegaPod's suspensions automatically contracted and released with jaw-dropping strength, the released energy propelling the heavy vehicle several meters into the air. The passengers fought the urge to yell as they sailed through empty space in a low arc and landed on the other side of the gap with a violent bounce.

Yumi jammed the joysticks to the left to keep from skidding, bringing the vehicle up alongside the opening they had just traversed over. The rear left tire caught the slanted edge, throwing the chassis off-balance.

_"Be careful, Yumi." _Jeremy said.

"Jeremy, you said this MegaPod-thing would adapt to the terrain!" Yumi grunted, fighting with the controls until she righted the vehicle.

_"Yes, but it's not perfect, and it needs time to anticipate the changes in its surroundings," _Jeremy told her.

"We can still switch places if you want," Odd offered again with a raised paw.

"Shut up, Odd, or you get out and walk!"

* * *

**Factory**

Footsteps echoed through the massive cathedral-like hall as William silently walked over to the elevator, mentally rehearsing what he was going to say to Jeremy and the others. He had spared himself the energy of rappelling down the old ropes and instead had come in through the factory's emergency exit on ground-level with the island. So preoccupied was he in his mission that, had he been paying attention, he may have caught Laura following him on his way to the factory.

She had trailed him like a bloodhound, keeping her distance and timing her steps with his. Though Laura found it very peculiar that William had climbed down a manhole and into a drainage sewer located in Kadic's park, she was not deterred and chose to continue after him. To her relief, the sewer was not nearly as bad as she had feared. What was even more interesting was the destination that William had left the sewer for—an abandoned automobile factory, built on a small island in the middle of the Seine and connected to the rest of Paris by a single bridge. This had to be where Jeremy was, she had assumed, yet was lost as to why it was here of all places.

Deciding to investigate rather than keep wondering, Laura followed the tall young man into the factory as quietly as she could. She crouched down to conceal herself among the wooden crates and palettes, observing William as he approached what appeared to be an elevator car. Compared to everything else in the dusty old place, the lift appeared to be far more modern and in working condition. This factory looked like it had been closed for decades. The apparatus, however, could have only been installed recently.

_Just what is going here?_ Laura thought.

There was a bulky control panel that William had stopped in front of, his back shielding Laura from whatever his hands were doing. She could hear what sounded like scraping metal, followed subsequently by four high-pitched electronic _beeps_, and then more scraping. The elevator's industrial garage-style door suddenly lurched up and retracted into the cab's ceiling, controlled by a chain-driven winch. Laura stared in fascination as William entered the elevator's threshold and hit a button to make the door close and send the cab down into a deep, dark shaft.

If Laura wasn't interested in any of this before, she was now. She rushed out from her hiding place and up to the panel to carefully scrutinize it. Through the perspective of both an engineer and electrician, she could see nothing to indicate that this apparatus was operational. How did William get the elevator working for him, then? Upon closer inspection, the face of the panel appeared to be bent, as if those who built it had not put it on right.

_...XXX..._

Jeremy was startled by the sudden opening of the blast doors behind him. He craned his head over his shoulder to get a good look at whoever had decided to barge in unannounced. His fear turned to annoyance and mild relief once he identified the intruder as William.

"William, could you please warn me when you decide to come here?" the blonde genius not-so-politely requested. "You really freaked me out."

"Sure, if you promise to warn _me_ the next time you guys go to Lyoko," William replied with contemptuous irony. "I thought that you had started to trust me after I helped out the last time. But I guess not I think about how there was a XANA attack yesterday and whatever it is you're doing right now."

"Look, I promised you we would talk about it, and we will; it's just that we've been busy with a few things lately."

William scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, and I bet there'll be another excuse by then, won't there."

For a split-second, Jeremy let the bitter remark get to him. In hindsight, he couldn't really blame William for making such accusations. After all, they hadn't bothered to come to him when XANA had been hunting them for source codes the other day. When it was finished, he had overheard them talking about it at dinner. While Jeremy knew he had to answer for being negligent, this was neither the time nor place to do so.

"Ok, you have my word that we'll talk about this for real later. I'm sorry, but we just can't do that right now. Maybe after they get back from the Cortex."

William remained silent, his shoulders subtlety rising and falling as he breathed heavily. Jeremy "word" simply wasn't convincing enough, sounding more like another attempt to keep him from more Lyoko-related activity. Fuming, William turned around and reentered the elevator, letting the doors close behind him as the cab ascended up to the main hall of the factory. The young man took in deep inhalations and exhalations of air, letting his shoulders rise and fall with each breath.

The Lyoko warriors just didn't understand him. He didn't expect them to, either. After all, becoming a mindless slave to an artificial intelligence and watching helplessly as your body did its bidding was something no other person had experienced, or at least some of them had forgotten theirs entirely thanks to a return-trip to the past. What sucked most of all was that fact that none of them, not even Yumi, were willing to acknowledge the fact that he was just another one of XANA's victim, not a minion.

_Yumi._

He wished the two of them could still get along like they used to. On the day of the supercomputer's initial shutdown, he remembered how she referred to a possible relationship between them as a "lost cause". Now she was with that bastard Ulrich, the rich kid who didn't want to be rich and somehow disliked the fact that so many of his female classmates wanted him. That guy was a living paradox. What the hell did he have to make Yumi choose him of all people in the end?

Deciding not to get himself riled up any further by wondering about that, William did his best to stop thinking about it. He was still angry at the warriors, though. He realized just how quickly he had been thinking when the elevator stopped and the door opened, inviting him out to the factory hall. He trudged out and moved in the direction of the emergency exit that he had first come through. Climbing a rope without being forced to by Jim was the last thing William wanted to do. Right now, he just wanted to go back to school and relax until dinner came along.

_I'm sick of being a stand-in. I don't deserve it._

Laura stuck her head out from behind one of the crates next to the elevator, still and quiet until she was sure that William was gone. She then stood up and returned to the elevator's control panel, pulling off the front plate. Behind it was a electronic keypad not unlike that of a garage door. This must have been what William had used to activate the machine. The _1_, _5_, _6_, and _0_ buttons had fingerprints on them whereas the rest of the little black device was covered with a fine layer of dust and grime.

_Of course._

* * *

**Cortex**

The MegaPod was cruising down a narrow space between two Cortex modules, safe from harm as it consisted of only three fixed parts that did not break up or change shape. The Lyoko warriors had made it through the bulk of the journey to the Replika's center and could at last feel at peace until they arrived at their destination. All four of them were quiet, taking the time to collect their thoughts and plan ahead for the infiltration of the the core room. Glancing to her right, Yumi noticed that Aelita was wearing a rather sulky facial expression.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned for her friend's well-being.

Although it was impossible to form a blush in the virtual world, Aelita was clearly flustered upon realizing that she had made herself so obvious. When she calmed, she said, "I was just thinking of my father. It's great that you guys are denying it for me, but what if everything that's been happening really _is_ his fault?"

Yumi frowned. "Aelita, your dad _can't_ be responsible for XANA's comeback, _or_ this crazy Replika. I mean, for one thing, he's..." she hesitated, knowing all too well of the thin ice she was about to tread over.

"Dead, I know," Aelita finished the sentence. "It's okay to say it, Yumi. Thanks for the benefit of the doubt, but it doesn't matter until we actually find the right information from the data banks. And I have a feeling we'll find it soon enough."

That was depressing to hear that kind of sentiment from Team Lyoko's most cheery member. As an intellectual and scientist at her very core, Aelita often needed evidence to regard something as fact. So far, there was nothing to support or discredit her fear that Franz Hopper had something to do with the Cortex and its enigmatic origins. The other warriors felt it necessary to retrieve that evidence and bring Aelita back to her old self by clearing her father's name. That meant getting to the core as quickly as possible.

The thin canyon eventually gave way to the huge arena surrounding the spherical outer core. The bridge connected to its entrance was on the other side of where they had arrived from, so Yumi turned right to circumnavigate the gap that the large object floated over. Shortly after passing the halfway point, the MegaPod's right front tire slipped into the fissure between two partially disconnected components of the Cortex that it had driven over. Before the occupants of said vehicle had time to react, it jerked to a halt as the tire became jammed within the small space and flipped one hundred eighty degrees from the inertia of the high speed it had been moving at. Luckily, the MegaPod was perfectly symmetrical and designed to adapt to the harshest terrain. It lay inverted for only a second before it's drivetrain and interior reconfigured so that it was now right-side up as it had been earlier.

As the disoriented Lyoko warriors recovered from the violent wipeout, Yumi jammed the joysticks back and forth in an effort to dislodge the trapped wheel. "No good," she grunted. "We're stuck. God dammit."

Odd smirked. "Well, this could have probably been avoided if I were—"

"Shut up, Odd!" Yumi snapped, craning her head around to meet his eyes with her burning ones. He recoiled slightly

Ulrich leaned closer to his roommate and whispered, "Don't make her mad when she's driving, like, _ever_."

Without warning, the MegaPod began to repeatedly shake as though someone or something was jostling it from outside. "What's going on?" Yumi had to ask.

_"You've got company,"_ Jeremy replied._ "There are three Krabs outside giving you hell."_

From what they could see on the third-person perspective on the HUD, three of XANA's Krabs had surrounded the MegaPod in a triangular formation and were relentlessly pelting it with charged laser blasts.

"WTF? You should have put a cannon on this thing, Einstein!" Odd said aloud.

_"Fine, I'll install a cannon next time! For now, though, you, Ulrich and Aelita have to fight the old-fashioned way."_

The three aforementioned warriors were then transported from their seats to the outside world right next to the trapped MegaPod. Ulrich drew his twin katanas, Aelita summoned her wings to take flight with, and Odd's laser arrow gauntlets took form on his bare paws

"Let's do this!" He cried.

Back inside the MegaPod, Yumi tried her luck at freeing the vehicle once again. While fiddling with the joysticks, she pressed a few random buttons in hopes of finding some kind of boost or jump ability. The HUD suddenly fizzled and disappeared, leaving the her confused and blindsided to the systems and what was transpiring outside.

"Oh no. Did I do something, Jeremy?" she called out.

_"You made the program lag. Don't worry; I can fix it."_

* * *

**Factory**

Jeremy immediately went to work at undoing the damage that Yumi had unintentionally caused. He meticulously typed all the required keys in the correct order to initiate the procedure. When he hit the Enter key, the terminal's primary monitor became distorted for a few seconds. When it subsided, he saw that the vehicle's ailment had not been taken care of.

He repeated the action, only to receive the same result. After taking a closer look at it, Jeremy realized that Yumi had done more than just mess with the MegaPod's controls; she had triggered a particularly nasty bug that had overridden and corrupted the Cortex's systems. That meant that not only could the vehicle not operate, but he could not physically extract her from it in any way, even for materialization.

_Of course this had to happen,_ he thought. _It's just like our luck to run out at a time like this._

The frustrated feeling grew when he heard the elevator doors open. Jeremy had hoped that he would not have to bother with William again for at least another day, but that was clearly out the window now. He turned around and began to say, "Look, William, I—"

The bespectacled genius and leader of the Lyoko warriors felt his breath and tongue hitch when his eyes identified the newcomer not as William Dunbar, but as Laura Gauthier. He had literally no idea how to react or what to say as he stared with an open mouth at the girl who was awkwardly standing there at the edge of the elevator's threshold. She stared back with equal bafflement and, after letting her eyes wander around the room, made a nervous smile intended for him.

_Oh, God._

* * *

**Cortex**

Swooping down and landing atop one of the Krabs as it attacked the MegaPod, Aelita grabbed the lip of the carapace above its three eyes and pulled with all the strength she could muster. The monster stopped shooting and jerked its body around like a wild bronco to shake her off. She let go and jumped into the air to hover while two energy balls formed in her hands. As the crustaceous construct took aim, she dove straight for it and released both blobs in the direction of her target. It was enveloped by the energy and exploded in a rain of shimmering debris which Aelita glided straight through on her way towards the core's entrance.

Ulrich noticed the angelic elf flying overhead while he blocked several laser bolts from the Krab that was quickly cornering him. "Hey, where are you going?!" he called out.

"I have to get inside that core room!" she threw her voice back at him. "You're in charge!"

Distracted by his friend trying to go it alone, Ulrich had allowed the Krab to cross the distance between itself and him, discharging its weapon at close range. He was able to sidestep the red energy pulse, but not one of the monster's scythed appendages. It knocked Ulrich off his feet and sent him tumbling away from the MegaPod that he had been protecting so fiercely.

All of a sudden, there was a rumbling sound as the fissure that the MegaPod was stuck in began to widen. The vibrations seemed to make the Krabs hesitate, giving Odd and Ulrich slip away from them and sprint back to the crippled vehicle. Just as they reached it, time seemed to slow from their horror as the two young men watched the MegaPod fall through the gap between the two modules, going straight down to the Digital Sea with Yumi still inside it.

"YUMI!" they both cried.

As luck would have it, the MegaPod's wheels caught two interlocking promontories jutting from the modules' sides, saving it from dropping into oblivion. Ulrich had never been more thankful for anything in his entire life. As he finished taking a deep breath of relief, he saw a bright red flash and felt the quick sting of a laser pulse hitting him in the upper arm. The Krabs were closing in and continuing with their assault. Without thinking, Ulrich jumped down into the gap and landed on one of the cube-shaped blocks located above the MegaPod as it stuck out from the module's wall. Odd followed him and landed on another opposite to him, using his enhanced feline reflexes to do so feet-first. As the Krabs made it to the edge of the upper level, Aelita alighted next to Ulrich with a pair of energy balls already summoned.

"Hey, you're back?" Ulrich asked her curiously.

"I figured you needed my help," Aelita replied, throwing one of her energy orbs and successfully destroying another Krab.

* * *

**Factory**

_"Jeremy, have you fixed everything yet?"_

"I'm sorry, Yumi, but I still have to work on it. Something really bad has happened."

_"I've noticed."_

For the moment, Jeremy quietly acknowledged the irony of his and Yumi's exchanged words. None of the virtualized warriors were aware of the fact that a nosy, overachieving acquaintance of theirs was sitting next to him on the raised lip of the graphic projector in the center of the lab, staring at him, then at the terminal, then back at him again. She was probably trying to make sense of him and the entire system of the supercomputer. Assuming that everyone came back unscathed, the situation would be all the more painfully awkward than it was now. He opted to push that aside and focus on the immediate emergency.

"Guys, are you hearing me? Yumi is still stuck in the MegaPod and you need to keep those Krabs away from it. If they push it into the Digital Sea, she'll be gone for good this time."

_"Two steps ahead of you, Einstein,"_ Odd grunted, apparently in momentary pain as he lost several more life points to a laser.

Laura started to speak at last. "This isn't really a video game, is it?"

"There really _is_ no hiding anything from you," Jeremy sighed. He saw no point in making up a story now that she was here.

"So this is a quantum computer, right?"

"Essentially."

"Are your friends in..._there_?"

"More or less."

"It is like an MMOW?"

"In some ways, yes."

"How did they get there?"

"Virtualization."

"You mean like taking apart their atoms and reassembling them in this 'world' like a transporter pad in _Star Trek_?"

"Kind of." Jeremy got out of his chair and ran over to the electrical connector not far from the elevator door. He opened the front panel to expose multiple circuit boards, plugs, jacks and buses. If debugging the MegaPod with the keyboard alone wasn't enough, he would have to get down and dirty with the supercomputer's inner workings to give him the advantage he needed. After rearranging a few plugs and wires, he closed it and ran back to his seat at the computer interface, typing away with blinding speed.

_"Jeremy? I'm starting to feel lonely in here,"_ he heard Yumi say.

"Yes, I know that," he replied. "Sorry, but I don't have enough arms to get you out of there at this very second."

"Maybe you _do_," Laura spoke up. Jeremy was about to protest, but he was interrupted when she continued with, "I may not have all the details on this place of yours, but you can be damn sure that I'm a expert in IT and electronics. Right now, your friend sounds like she's in trouble, so if you need help...like I said, just ask."

Jeremy took the time to ponder Laura's surprisingly selfless offer. Whether she was trying to help someone out of the goodness of her heart or dive deeper into this sea of information that she had stumbled upon he could not tell. Based on the crisis ensuing in the Cortex, he didn't really have any choice in the matter.

"...I could really use a hand, Laura," he said at last with all the humility in the world.

Laura smiled and stood up from the floor to make her way to the connector. Jeremy could have sworn he had glimpsed her underwear as she awkwardly got to her feet, tearing his eyes away from her and back to the terminal while reminding himself that he had a girlfriend. Be damned if he started thinking of another girl besides Aelita in that way. Had he not let that brief distraction get to him, he may have noticed that his earpiece was resting on the armrest of his chair.

* * *

**Cortex**

Cornered from above, Aelita, Ulrich and Odd were fast becoming overwhelmed by the tenacity of XANA's Krabs as they began to slowly make their way down the sides of the gap in the modules, climbing perpendicularly with no visible effort. One engaged Odd in an exchange of rapid fire, while Aelita and Ulrich stuck close to the MegaPod, providing both protection and a distraction.

"Jeremy, are you done with that debugging thing yet?!" Ulrich yelled over the sound of discharging lasers and his sword blocking and absorbing thereof. Not a single word came from his friend's end in the real world. "Einstein, are you there?!"

Adjacent to the German samurai, Aelita made note of the fact that her lover had not responded to Ulrich's calls. She knew he had not said anything because when Jeremy spoke through his earpiece, everyone on Lyoko would have heard it. She wondered what would have made him cease communications after talking to Yumi not a minute ago.

"Jeremy?!" she called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to make her voice louder. "Can you hear me?! It's Aelita!" She waited, and still the reply she listened for never came. Now she was concerned for Jeremy and the disturbing image of a specter asphyxiating him in the lab flashed across the screen of her mind. When several laser bolts impacted on the MegaPod's body, Aelita shook her head and remembered that she had to deal with these monsters before anything else.

The angelic elf fluttered into the air and alighted on top of the vehicle, stretching her arms out in front of her. A pink dome of energy formed around her petite body with the intent of shielding the faulty vehicle from further harm. Failing to score a direct hit, one of the Krabs started to walk down the vertical surface it was standing on to attack from the side. Fortunately, Odd was prepared to intercept it.

He waited until the Krab's body was parallel with his own before sprinting across the jutting promontory he was on and jumping off the edge, letting the inertia of his acceleration carry him through empty space as he slammed into the monster like an American football player. The energy of the collision was enough to loosen the grip it had on the wall and send it falling through the gap to its doom while Odd rode on top of it for a moment, only to jump off and land on a small protrusion of the module.

Having overheard Aelita trying to contact Jeremy, he looked up and said, "Don't worry, Aelita! I'm sure he's fine! Worst-case scenario is he left to hang out with the _other_ Miss Einstein!"

Feeling as though a nerve in her had been struck, Aelita lowered her energy barrier to scowl at the smartass she called her friend, leaving her vulnerable to attack. This proved to be a grave mistake when a Krab took aim and shot her in the head. Just like in the real world, a headshot usually meant game over for the Lyoko warriors. Aelita's body disintegrated as it slipped and fell from the MegaPod, becoming noting more than pixels that faded away.

* * *

**Factory**

Aelita lay slumped against the inner wall of the same scanner she had been virtualized in, opening her eyes when the capsule's thin doors opened with a loud hiss. She did not move for several seconds as she caught her breath and tried to overcome the painful sensation over her frontal lobe. Those Krabs' lasers always packed quite a wallop, and this one had nailed her right in the middle of her forehead. She silently cursed Odd for his immaturity, then shifted some of the blame away from him and onto herself. It was her fault for allowing his seemingly harmless taunting to get to her in the middle of a fight. In any case, she was out of play, but could still provide assistance from the lab, especially with that debugging process for the MegaPod.

As the headache gradually went away, the Lyoko warrior stumbled out if the scanner and over to the elevator door, pressing a button on the adjacent panel to summon it. She stepped into the cab as soon as the freight doors allowed her to do so and hit another button to send her up to the lab.

When the lift slowed to a squeaky halt and the doors opened for her, Aelita saw Jeremy in his chair like usual, seemingly unaware of her. He must have been working very hard. As she disembarked from the elevator, the Lyoko princess almost immediately noticed the shape of another person to her left in the corner of her eye. She suddenly heard her beau say, "Replace the 4AA13 interface with then 3B6 one."

At the same time, Aelita turned to the unexpected visitor and froze. It was Laura. She was in front of the electrical connector console, fiddling with its inner components. After fully processing the scene, the pink-haired girl's bafflement was accompanied by a suspicious discontent directed at the intruder.

"What are you doing here, Laura?!" she all but snapped.

From his chair, Jeremy craned his head over his shoulder to look directly at his girlfriend. "It's okay, Aelita. She sort of found her way in—I think I can partially blame William for that—but she's giving me a hand with the bug." He returned his attention to the screen and continued typing. "Now put the cursor down in its secondary position to boost the encoding programs."

Laura nodded and went straight to work. Before she could finish, Aelita put a hand to her shoulder. "I think I can take care of it from here," she insisted, resisting the urge to squeeze with as much strength as she could put into her fingers.

"We don't had time for that," Jeremy said sternly. Reluctantly, Aelita released her grip, aware that Jeremy was watching her. She stepped back and leaned against the wall of the lab to quietly sulk. She now wanted nothing more than to kick Laura out and question Jeremy on how exactly she got here and why he was trusting her all of a sudden. She had spotted his earpiece on his right armrest and began connected as many dots as she could, bitterly wondering what else could have happened between the two of them.

When Laura finished her assigned task, she asked, "Is this all right?"

Jeremy checked the terminal screen. "Perfect, now shunt the 51-52 circuit."

* * *

**Cortex**

Using his feline claws like the ice axes of a mountaineer, Odd rapidly scaled the side of the gap between the Cortex's parts towards the surface from where the MegaPod had fallen through. He jumped high into the air as he reached the top, taking a Krab by surprise. Before the monster could counter, the hyper blonde member of Team Lyoko fired a stream of laser arrows at it in midair. The projectiles met the "face" and back of the mechanical beast, destroying it while Odd landed on the ground with all the grace of a real cat.

Nearby, Ulrich was busy fending off the other two Krabs as they cornered him, shooting at him again and again while he blocked each and every shot with his katanas. He angled the blade in his left hand in a way so that the next red energy bolt that came into contact with it was reflected back to its point of origin in the Krab's central eye. The inflicted damage was too much for the monster as it exploded in a mess of shimmering crystals. The other Krab was destroyed soon after by a similar injury, but from one of the German samurai's thrown swords instead of the discharge of its own weapon. Ulrich quickly retrieved his weapon and retreated back to the edge of the gap with Odd as four more Krabs and two Megatanks appeared.

Looking down, the two warriors saw that two Krabs had slipped past them and were doing everything in their power to destroy the MegaPod, be it by charged lasers or simply clawing at it with their legs. "That's not good," Odd observed.

"Well let's not stand around and watch." Ulrich gripped the hilts of his swords and looked ready to jump. There was no way in hell he was about to let them kill Yumi. From out of the blue, Odd's avatar was reduced to nothing as multiple laser pulses tore through him. Ulrich looked back to see the monsters practically breathing down his neck. He ran straight off the edge before they could attack and fell straight down towards the MegaPod, landing on top of its spherical body. As he stood his ground against one of the Krabs attacking the vehicle, the other shot him in the back before climbing on top of the bulky transport and devirtualizing him through swift impalement.

For Yumi, there was no end to the shaking of the MegaPod's interior. XANA was clearly giving it his all to destroy the vehicle she was trapped in and possibly her with it. As the rattling became more intense, she took the hint that Ulrich, Odd and Aelita had failed to hold off the onslaught directed at her. A loud creaking sound was heard and before she knew it, she felt weightless. Yumi recognized this as the feeling one got when falling from a great height. This was it. She was going to die. She'd be wiped from existence and never be with Ulrich, Hiroki, her friends or family ever again. There wasn't even a chance to say goodbye.

Just as she began to curl up and prepare for the inevitable, a miracle happened. Her avatar was rapidly deconstructed by some unseen force until she faded from virtual existence entirely mere seconds before the MegaPod landed in the waters of the Digital Sea with a monstrous splash and a pillar of white light.

* * *

**Factory**

Yumi's eyes flew open as her body's functionality returned with her consciousness in her scanner. It was akin to suddenly waking up from a midday nap—a sharp gasp followed by a shuddering of her lungs and diaphragm. The first thing she saw was her boyfriend and Odd standing in front of her and beside one another, presenting warm smiles of relief and joy to see her in one piece. When she stepped out, Ulrich drew her into an embrace. There were no words to be said.

A minute later, the three adolescents took the elevator up to the lab. They had no idea that Laura would be there with the other team geniuses, and were caught off guard by her presence. Jeremy was able to quickly calm them and began to explain how Laura had followed William to the factory and agreed to lend a helping hand when things were going awry for everyone. Ulrich and Yumi were especially astonished to learn that the latter had been saved at the last minute thanks to other girl's rewiring of the supercomputer's output systems, which would have taken much longer if Jeremy had done so on his own. As he recounted, a proud smile found its way onto Laura's lips. Meanwhile, Aelita was waiting impatiently for the decision that would have to be made next, and she already knew what her say in the matter would be.

When that was over, he gave Laura the short version of their history with the supercomputer, mostly about XANA, their battles with him, his defeat and sudden return. Aelita was pleased to hear him leave out the more sensitive information like her parents. Throughout the story, Laura had to restrain her fascination and save her questions for later.

"You mean to tell me that no one else knows about this place?" she queried.

"Well...let's just say some have been more curious than others," Jeremy replied with a smirk. Laura took the hint and blushed a little.

"Anyway," Yumi said, "thank you for saving my life earlier." She offered a small bow of gratitude.

Laura smiled. "You're welcome. I'm just glad that you guys were able to complete your mission."

Those words set something off in Aelita. It reminded her that the complete opposite of their task had happened and that she was no closer to discovering the identity of the Cortex's creator. She got off the wall to stand stiff and say, "No! The mission was a complete _failure_!"

Everyone in the group was now looking at her with perplexed, almost freaked out expressions. "What are you talking about? We got to test the MegaPod in the Cortex and it worked well," Jeremy reasoned.

"What about the core?" Aelita asked incredulously. "I have to get inside, and I didn't get the chance this time. How long before the MegaPod's ready for another trip?"

"It's not as complicated as the _Skid_, so it'll probably take a few days. But first I have to make the systems better and install a few add-ons before you go back; energy shielding and cannons for defense."

"Before any of us do that," Ulrich spoke up, "can we first figure out what to do with Laura here?"

The Lyoko warriors looked at Laura and then each other. "I've given it thought," Jeremy admitted. He turned to Laura. "In short, either you join the team and keep learning about this place, or we initiate a program that will move time back, and you'll forget everything that's happened here."

Laura blinked twice. "_Everything_?"

"Everything."

There was a moment of silence. It was obvious that Laura wanted in on the secret of the supercomputer, and she would be very helpful should the need for another arise. However, they had done the same thing with William, and while that was mostly water under the bridge by now, things had not gone as according to plan. There was also the fact that another person would be risking their chances for a normal life that the gang envied their peers so much for. Who were they to drag someone else into it, even if it was their own choice?

"I say we take a vote," Yumi said. "We'll make it unanimous just like all the others."

"If it's unanimous, I have to say no," Aelita replied bitterly. Before anyone could question her on the matter, she casually strode up to the computer terminal and typed the keys in a pattern that Jeremy knew all too well. A pillar of white light pierced the center of the room, expanding and engulfing everything in its blinding brightness. As Aelita's sight began to leave her, she thought she could see Laura looking at her. From the contortion of her face, it had to be the coldest scowl anyone had given her. She shrugged it off and waited for the time reversion to take its course. Any moment now, she would find herself in her bed and ready to begin the same day anew.

* * *

**Kadic Academy**

After completing their morning routines for the second time that day, the Lyoko warriors were in the process of repeating the school-day they had gotten through before going back in time. Ulrich, Aelita, Odd and Jeremy were back in Ms. Hertz's room and working on the same physics problems they had already dealt with. For the entire morning, Aelita had barely said a word to Jeremy, who was beginning to understand the reasons behind her actions and disposition. It took some time to get all the information out of Odd with Ulrich's help, but when it was done, the blonde genius was aware that his girlfriend was jealous of Laura, her attraction towards him, and the unaccounted time she had spent with him in the lab. He certainly didn't expect to go through this kind of thing in his romantic life.

After a few minutes of tense silence between them, Jeremy leaned over and whispered, "Aelita, I'm really sorry about all of this; I didn't know you were...you know. I swear that _nothing _happened between Laura and I when I wasn't answering you. I mean, she was already there, Yumi was in danger and you were—"

"It's okay, I know that now," Aelita cut him off. "It's just that I don't trust that girl. I don't know why, but there's something off about her."

Jeremy wasn't sure what Aelita meant by that, but he took her word for it. He had a feeling, though, that Laura would probably interact with them again in some manner. She was a lot like him—intelligent, curious and on an unending quest for knowledge and truth. For now, the best thing to do was pay her little mind and focus on XANA and the Cortex. They couldn't afford to wreck another outsider's life by inviting them into this hellish and exhausting one.

"Okay, class," Ms. Hertz said all of a sudden, "who can give me the speed of our planet's rotational inertia?"

Laura raised her hand with eager speed. Aelita was surprised that her boyfriend had not done the same. "Why don't you do it?" she asked.

"I already know the answer," Jeremy said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Come on, I know you can get it right this time."

She was right. Jeremy realized that he wasn't as tired as he had been before. He felt focused and level-headed. With his confidence at its peak, his had shot up in the air and the teacher's eyes fell upon him.

"How about you, Jeremy?"

The boy was immediately out of his chair and heading straight for the board, ready to zoom through the problem like a champ and maintain his title as Kadic's smartest student. It did Aelita's heart good to see him like this. It was also a little funny to see the shocked expression plastered on Laura's face.

From behind, Odd leaned over his desk to get closer to her. "Not to criticize you, but you may want to take an ethics class for your next elective."

"I know what I did may seem unfair," Aelita said, "but in the end it was for the best. Besides, there can only be _one_ Miss Einstein."

* * *

**_Okay so that's another one down. Hope you guys liked it. Cooking up the next chapter for you right now. Until then~!:) Please review._**


	5. Author's Note

_**Author's Note: Hello, guys. I know you've probably been expecting me to have posted another new chapter for this fanfic, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Before I can continue this story, I need to do some extensive research on computers, quantum physics, and look at some shows and video games that I draw material from. I really need to make this good, and to do that, I might have to go back and edit some things for the umpteenth time, so I'm sorry if this disappoints or inconveniences you. Until then, keep an eye our for this story. I promise not to disappoint you any further.**_

_**Regards, 226.**_


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